Strife Delivery Service
by XD
Summary: Cloud needs help with his delivery service. He soon realises he may need help with more than that, when his two new employees start talking among themselves about traversing worlds and resetting memories.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimers apply.

Post FFVII Compilation, KH2 and KH3D spoilers.

Because the world needs more friendship fics.

**Strife Delivery Service**

Cloud had made up his mind.

He was going to employ some help.

The core of his delivery service had moved to the western continent in recent years. The WRO had most of the postal routes covered on the eastern continent. Edge was quite close to Kalm anyway, and the Chocobo Farm could handle their own deliveries. Junon, Fort Condor, and any other small settlements that had sprung up spontaneously were being taken care of by the WRO. Reeve had not been kidding when he offered to help Cloud with his delivery service.

Thus, Cloud had moved to the western continent and set up shop at his Costa del Sol villa. It's not like he'd been using it for anything else, anyway.

The western continent was home to many old towns and cities and was therefore much more populated than its eastern neighbour - especially with the recent destruction of Midgar, which saw people leaving the eastern continent in droves, hoping to restart their lives in new lands. Needless to say, postal service was in great demand there, though delivery of any sort would take someone days across vast wildernesses where monsters and highwaymen lurked.

Which was why Cloud's delivery service was such a smash hit with the locals.

Whole towns were contracting him to deliver entire sacks of letters which sometimes took him across continents. He tried his best to do everything quickly, but the workload was getting too much for him to handle. It was getting harder to do his deliveries in a timely manner, and even though the senders were more than happy to wait as long as the mail eventually got to the receivers (any other delivery service on the continent had a more than 50% loss rate, apparently), it still bothered Cloud tremendously that he was holding on to so much important stuff.

So he manned up and admitted that he wasn't going to be able to do this alone.

The next weekend morning, he was out and about, pasting recruitment posters downtown. The weather was as sultry as it always was in the resort land, so he was in his usual beach wear - T-shirt, bermuda shorts, and slippers. It wasn't even noon, and he wanted to go back into hiding in his office already. He still had a few more posters to go, though, so he picked up his bucket of glue and turned to head in another direction.

It was then that he heard it.

"Aaah!" someone was shouting very loudly. "It's Cloud!"

Cloud snapped his head towards the direction of the voice. A red and black blur was bouncing towards him at such great speed, he was sure they were going to collide. Fortunately for the both of them, the red and black blur managed to stop in time.

The blur - a boy, now that he had stopped moving - scrutinised Cloud from head to toe. Then he broke into a wide grin and turned around to call out to someone from behind. "Riku! Riku! I found Cloud!"

Somewhere behind, another boy separated himself from the crowd that was milling in the Costa del Sol square and started heading this way. The both of them were teenagers, if Cloud could hazard a guess. The peppy one had brown hair and the one that was approaching had silver. Silver? Cloud narrowed his eyes cautiously, although he schooled his features soon after that. The boy's aura was completely different. Still too early to say whether they meant him harm or not, though.

Especially when they seemed to know his name and he didn't know theirs.

As if on que, the boy in front of him announced, "Oh yeah! I guess you technically don't know us, huh? My name's Sora! Nice to meet you!"

Cloud just stared at him.

The other boy had reached them by now, and he lifted a hand to bop the one who had introduced himself as Sora on the head. "Sorry, I think he got the wrong person," he gave the excuse without looking at Cloud in the eyes.

Cloud snorted to himself inside. How many blond-haired Clouds were there in this world? They knew him all right, but they also knew that he didn't know them. Although, something stirred in the recesses of his heart when he looked at the one called Sora. Even though he was sure he'd never met him before, something about him just seemed so familiar.

The other boy, the one Sora had called Riku, was staring at the posters Cloud had in his hands. Something flashed in his eyes and he finally looked up to face Cloud. "Are you hiring?"

Cloud glanced at his recruitment posters, then back at the two boys. "You boys interested?"

The boys exchanged a look that seemed all too happy. It was, of course, Sora who replied, "You bet we are!"

"Follow me, then," Cloud beckoned with a slight tilt of his head. Might as well get them into the house so that he could question them further about how they knew his name. Besides, the sun was killing him.

The villa was a short walk from the main square. He ushered the boys into the sitting room where he usually entertained clients and told them to wait for a bit. He went into the adjacent washroom to clean out the bucket, then down into the basement to put the extra posters away. Satisfied that that was all for now, he returned to the ground floor, meaning to finally talk to the boys.

As he rounded the corridor and moved towards the door to the living room, he could hear them talking among themselves with his enhanced hearing. Apparently, they were talking about him. He slowed down slightly.

"...so it seems like he doesn't remember you or Hollow Bastion. Their memories are probably reset when they return to their original worlds."

"It doesn't make sense. Why aren't _our_ memories reset when we return to our original world?"

"Keybearers are supposed to traverse worlds, Sora. Might be a problem if we end up forgetting everything upon returning."

"Okay, then... why are _their_ memories reset?"

"I'm not sure... maybe... to protect them? After all... not all of them come from worlds familiar with the kind of battles we had to face..."

"Oh..."

Cloud blinked and shook his head. That was not a conversation between a couple of normal teenagers. Who were these people? He deliberately made his footsteps heavier to inform them of his approach. As he had expected, they immediately stopped conversing.

Opening the door, he gave them each a brief glance over. "Sorry for the wait," he said, settling himself down in the couch opposite the one they had taken. "I'm Cloud Strife. I run a delivery business and I need some help at the moment, as you already know. You boys think you're up to it?"

"Course we do!" Sora leapt onto his feet and thumped a fist on his chest. "We can start right away! What do you need us to do?"

"Slow down," said Cloud. The enthusiasm of the boy was tiring him before they had even started on anything. "First I'll need to know your names, ages, and if you've gotten your parents' permissions to take up part-time work."

That cause them both to stop and stare, first at Cloud, then at each other.

Eventually, it was the taller boy who answered. "This is Sora, he's 15," he waved at his brown-haired friend, who was now back in his seat, "and I'm Riku, 16. We, umm... our parents aren't... in this world..."

Cloud had to stop himself from twitching. Orphans? He decided not to press. "Sorry I had to ask, but it's just standard procedure, you know," he paused for a moment to compose his voice. "All right, let's get you guys briefed then."

"So that means we're hired?!" Sora literally brightened.

"You don't want to be?"

"No! I mean yes, we want to help, I mean..."

"Sora," Cloud sighed, not noticing that the boy brightened even further when he heard him say his name, "just shut up for a while and listen to me."

Somehow, he wasn't surprised to see Sora grinning wider instead of taking offence. "Okay!" Sora sang, and Riku was smiling beside him.

Cloud proceeded to go through the basics of his delivery service with them. There were no major deliveries in the foreseeable future, so they were going to be going around the Corel area for the next few days. He wasn't going to ask them to go too far, though, just within Costa del Sol for now. He needed to keep them close by so he could figure out who they really were, anyway.

Cloud concluded the briefing by asking, "You know your way around this town, don't you?"

"Oh, yeah," Sora, ever the social boy, quickly answered. "We've been here for a few days."

"Sora..." Riku groaned.

"What do you mean?" Cloud pounced on that gaffe. "You're not from around here?"

"Umm..." Sora scratched his nose. "No... But we've been here for a while! We can figure out where the deliveries go! No problem!"

That wasn't really what Cloud was most concerned about. "Where are the both of you staying?"

Dead silence.

Cloud folded his arms across his chest and stared long and hard at the two sheepish boys in front of him. "_Where_ are the both of you staying?" he asked again.

Sora was cowed, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Riku stomped on his foot. "We don't have enough for an apartment yet. That's why we're looking for jobs," he hastily blurted.

Cloud was unconvinced. So, two orphan boys wandering around without a place to stay, looking for odd jobs. "I do not employ delinquents," he said in a gruff voice, and he saw that Sora visibly deflated, disturbing as the image was, "so you'll be staying in this villa until you earn enough for an apartment. And I set the house rules while you're here. Deal or no deal?"

After a short pause of disbelief, he received his answer when Sora pounced on him for the bear hug of the century.

**ooxxooxxoo**

Over the next few days, Cloud sent the two boys on daily rounds in Costa del Sol while he covered the area outside the resort town. He also made them clean the villa in their free time, do the grocery shopping, wash the laundry, and basically anything that might qualify as work. When they first moved whatever little belongings they had into the room on the ground floor (Cloud had modified the basement so that he had his personal room there), Cloud managed to get Sora to spill that they had been roughing it out in a cave near the beach all this time.

Which made Cloud all the more glad - secretly, of course - that he offered them shelter on gut instinct.

He talked to the boys daily to get their reports on how their work was going, and of course, to find out what exactly was going on with them. So far, he wasn't finding anything of importance, except that they weren't dangerous at all and posed no harm to him, or anyone else for that matter.

To be honest, that was really the only thing he cared about knowing.

Sora was a bundle of energy from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to bed (sometimes forcibly). Cloud didn't question how, but the boy had managed to get his hands on a skateboard, which he was using to do the deliveries. In the mere few days he had been on the job, he was already charming the residents of the town. A few had dropped by after his working hours to offer him the odd candy bar or two, much to his delight. The villa, which had been one of the less frequented places of the sunny town, was now a tad livelier thanks to Sora and his magnetic personality.

On the other hand, Riku was a boy of few words who usually only spoke when spoken to, although all bets were off when there was something he was interested in. He wasn't as cold or distant as Cloud initially thought he was, though he was constantly pensive. He smiled very lightly in acknowledgement when smiled at and was reserved and subtle in his mannerisms (except when he was trying to hammer something into Sora's head), but never ignored or talked down to anyone. In fact, Cloud was surprised to observe that Riku was seemingly the less streetwise of the two.

Well, what was it they said about books and their covers?

In the end, the both of them were doing such a good job that Costa del Sol's several months backlog of deliveries were finished within the week. Cloud was impressed. The next round of deliveries was to and within the North Corel area, and he wasn't sure if he wanted them to tag along. If they didn't, though, there was nothing for them to do in Costa del Sol except housework. That might not keep them busy enough until more deliveries for Costa del Sol came in, and who knew what kind of trouble two energetic teenagers could create in his absence?

So he decided it was time for a staff meeting.

"Okay, so here's the thing," Cloud laid out a world map on the table and cut to the chase. "Costa del Sol's done for now. I'm moving on to North Corel next. Monsters still lurk the region, so it's dangerous. I can outrun them on my bike, but I'm not sure about you guys," he didn't want them to know that he did monster hunting as a sideline. Not yet. "So the obvious solution is to leave you guys in Costa del Sol for a week or two. You think you can keep the villa standing in one piece until my return?"

Sora, who had developed a rather horrified expression on his face halfway through Cloud's explanation, suddenly stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "Monsters!" he exclaimed. "We'll protect you from them, Cloud!"

Because he looked so serious about it, Cloud couldn't find the right words to say immediately.

"That must be what we're here for!" Sora turned to address Riku this time, oblivious to Cloud's growing astonishment. Riku slowly nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Cloud's astonishment had turned into bewilderment.

"Nothing!" Sora beamed. "We'll protect you from the monsters, Cloud! Don't worry!"

Cloud looked at Riku.

"I think he means he wants to go with you," Riku obligingly explained.

"Thank you," Cloud mumbled under his breath. He cleared his throat. "There will be no fighting with monsters. I can easily outrun them on my bike. Speed of delivery is usually more important than monster head count in this line of business, in case you haven't already figured that out."

"But you might still need help!" Sora insisted.

"With _deliveries_, not monsters."

"Oh, well, we can do that too!"

Cloud shook his head. "I won't have space on the bike for either of you after it's loaded."

"I have my skateboard!" Sora exclaimed. When he saw Cloud giving him the evil eye, he quickly added, "Or, or we can rent another bike! Please? I wanna come along!"

"You might as well let him," Riku interrupted, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "You know he's going to bug you until you say yes."

Cloud recalled the past week with Sora in the house, and decided that Riku was probably right. "What about you?" he asked Riku.

"Of course I'm coming along too."

"Right, why did I even bother to ask?" Cloud sighed. "Fine, you can all come along _if_," he raised his voice to stop Sora from entering his triumphant pose too soon, "if you can find your own transportation. We leave in two days."

After that, he collected the map and swept out of the room, leaving the boys to their own devices.

Well, at least he didn't have to worry about his villa being razed to the ground while he was gone.

Over the next two days, he watched in amusement as the boys scrambled all over town looking for something they could use as transport. Riku had dragged a slightly battered tractor and caravan into the side yard on the first day, and they were doing all they could to whip the vehicles into shape. All things considered, they were actually doing quite a good job. He briefly wondered why they hadn't just gone ahead and rented a buggy or a bike like Sora had initially suggested. Then it dawned on him that they were operating on a rather thin budget - all the gil they had earned from their work so far. For a while, he was slightly annoyed that they didn't just ask him for money. Technically, this was company affair, so they had every right to.

But then again, that was what he liked about the two boys too.

The day before their scheduled departure, Cloud was preparing dinner in the kitchen when he overheard the boys talking in the side yard.

"Okay! So the caravan's ready to roll, right?"

"Not yet, Sora. We still need to fix the tractor's engine."

"What?!" The sound of something falling unceremoniously on soil and grass. "I don't know a thing about engines! We never needed one for the raft!"

"Yes, the waves kind of just pushed us along, but this is different."

Cloud popped the marinated meat into the oven and sipped on a cup of coffee. So they had been drifting on a raft before they reached Costa del Sol? Must have been some adventure. Actually, how were they still alive?

"I don't suppose you have any gummi blocks handy... or something?"

Riku actually laughed a little. "Sorry Sora," he sounded amused all right. "Maybe we can check out the local garage for some spare engine parts. I think we just need to fix the ignition and the fuel tank."

"All of this would be so much easier if Cid was around..."

Cloud choked on his coffee. As he was hacking up a storm in the kitchen, Sora's head popped up from outside the window.

"Whoa, Cloud! You okay?" asked the boy with worry on his face.

Still coughing, Cloud held a hand up and nodded to indicate that he had the situation under control.

By this time, Riku's head had popped up as well. He didn't say anything, but his concern was palpable enough.

"I'm fine, boys," reassured Cloud, when he had recovered enough to give a hoarse reply. He straightened himself and walked over to the window. "Okay, I guess I'm officially curious," he admitted, trying to keep the reluctance out of his voice. "What on the planet have you two been up to in the side yard for the past two days?"

Sora and Riku looked at each other, then broke out into mischievous grins and knowing smiles. They both turned to look at Cloud at the same time, and the bubbly happiness they radiated was almost too much for Cloud to bear. "We're fixing up our caravan!" Sora stated the obvious. "Wanna see?"

Cloud knew that wasn't really a question, so he sighed inwardly and told them to wait for him.

Going to the side yard from the villa's main entrance was a bit of a bother. The fastest way was to jump out of the window, but the yard was actually one level below the ground floor. It wasn't that Cloud had any compunctions about that, but he knew the boys had pushed the caravan against the window side of the wall, so if he did jump out of the window, he might destroy the thing with the combined force of his weight and gravity alone. To get there on foot, Cloud had to exit the house, walk down the stairs, and then go further down a slope and turn right just before he reached the town exit.

When Cloud pushed open the brittle fence leading into the wildly overgrown side yard, he realised that this was the first time he was even stepping into this area. He looked down at it from the window all the time, making mental notes to get a gardener to fix some of the more dangerous looking plants, but never actually bothering to implement the plan. Ever since the boys laid claim to it, however, the garden was starting to look slightly better. They had to clear away quite a bit of overgrowth for a proper working space, after all.

After he had finished his brief analysis of the garden, Cloud turned his attention to the caravan proper. Sora was still standing on the roof, his arms akimbo and a bright smile on his face. So that was how they had reached the kitchen window, which was one floor above.

"Behold!" Sora announced, spreading his arms out in a flourish. "The caravan that will take us around this world!"

Cloud looked at the caravan, in all its reinforced steel glory, and had to admit that it did look rather travel worthy. The rusty parts he had spotted when they first pulled it into the garden had been replaced with shiny new parts. The gapping holes in the roof had been patched up with a few large pieces of canvas. It would hold up in a rainstorm.

The tractor, on the other hand, had seen better days. The boys had been cleaning it, since it wasn't crusted with mud anymore. The engine flap was open, and Riku was standing beside it, though he wasn't doing anything to it at the moment. There was a toolbox at his feet.

"The caravan's a good idea," Cloud remarked offhandedly. He had been turning down large item delivery requests all this time since they wouldn't fit on Fenrir or in any of its compartments, but if he had something like this... As soon as the idea came, he shook his head to dismiss it. He had already decided, when he started the business, to keep things as simple as possible, since he was a one man show. The boys would move on once they had earned enough. No point taking on more requests he wouldn't be able to continue fulfilling down the road, much as he hated to see the disappointment in people's eyes whenever he had to reject their requests.

Sora had leapt down from the roof of the caravan by now, landing very lightly on his feet. "We're almost done! We just need to fix the engine... or something."

The engine was old and charred. "Or something," Cloud agreed. He took a screwdriver from the toolbox and poked at the machine. The machine gave an indiscernible groan and squirted some black particles at him. "Hmm," Cloud tossed the screwdriver back into the toolbox, his eyes still on the engine. "I don't think even Cid can help you out with this one." Being that he was looking with great displeasure at the completely bungled engine, he failed to notice Sora's eyes growing comically wide. He continued, "I have a better idea."

"What better idea?" Riku asked, almost too quickly. When Cloud turned, he saw that the boy was looking at Sora with a warning glint in his eyes. Cloud recognised this look. It was Riku's trademark Sora-shut-up-or-you're-going-to-make-things-worse glare. He wondered why the boy was wearing it now. Deciding it was none of his business, Cloud shrugged and moved on to examine the caravan's attachment part. Then, he paced along the length of the caravan, under the inquisitive eyes of his two employees.

"All right," he finally said, turning around to face the boys. "Sora, go get the garage guy here. We have some modifications to do."

"Uh?"

"Just go get him."

"Uh... okay?" Sora scratched his head, but toddled off obediently.

Cloud caught Riku's eye and said, "Stay here. I'll be right back."

He walked around the corner to the attached backyard, where his own garage was, and pushed Fenrir out from its home into the side yard. Riku blinked in surprise upon seeing the vehicle, but said nothing. The boys had seen Cloud riding off on the bike a few times in the past week, so it wasn't exactly a novel sight. Still, Cloud could sense his curiosity.

"I was thinking we should ditch the tractor," Cloud explained, when everyone (including the local car guy Sora went to get) was assembled, "and just hook the caravan to my bike instead."

While Sora and Riku both gaped in surprise, the local car guy laughed and gave Cloud a pat on the back.

"Finally gonna cash in on all those favours I owe you, huh?" the man grinned.

"I intend to pay," Cloud said, sullenly.

"After all that you've done for the town, I think we can call it even," the man gave him another pat on the shoulder. "I've always wanted to tinker with that baby anyway... and I've got just the thing for this project. Hold on a sec. Sheesh, you could've just told me right from the start and saved me the extra trip, you know..." the man grumbled his way out good-naturedly.

"Cloud?" Sora asked, once the grumbling man was out of earshot. "Are we really going to hook the caravan to your bike?"

"You wanted to come along, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but..." Sora gulped. "What if it damaged your bike?"

Of course he would be worried about damaging someone else's property. Cloud sometimes wondered if the boy had a single opportunistic bone in him. He shrugged, saying, "Then you can pay me back by delivering more items for me, I guess."

This time, Cloud was fast enough to avoid the incoming glomp attack.

By the very next day, they were on the road as planned.

The car guy had installed a sidecar on Fenrir to give it enough stability to carry the weight of the caravan on the go - which was especially necessary when navigating sharp turns. He'd even done it so that the sword compartment in front wouldn't be hindered in any way. Not that Cloud needed the sword compartment for now, since he had locked all his swords together and was letting it sit snug in just one of the slots designed for his swords. The rest of the slots were stuffed full of delivery items. Necessity is the mother of invention, indeed.

As Cloud concentrated on speeding through the Corel wastelands as quickly as he could, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Sora - the self-nominated passenger of the newly attached sidecar (Cloud had forbade him, but was eventually no match for those puppy eyes) - was scanning the terrain with an uncharacteristically grave look on his face. It would appear the boy was taking his promise of "protecting" Cloud very, very seriously.

Somewhere deep inside Cloud's battle-hardened heart, something tickled.

Was this what it was like to have an annoying younger brother who still looked out for your back nevertheless? Cloud could get used to this. For now, however, he had to concentrate on getting them all in one piece to North Corel.

After Meteor, and after the WRO was founded, the town of North Corel had received a large subsidy for rebuilding their town, which they promptly put into good use. The old, rickety train tracks were torn down to make way for paved roads. Better rails were also installed along the asphalt roadways to facilitate heavy industry transportation. Mt. Corel was now a major trade route between the eastern and western parts of the west continent. The area was slowly but surely regaining its former glory before Shinra's interference.

The industrialisation had forced some of the more dangerous monsters off Mt. Corel into the wastelands. A few of them could be spotted lurking in the shadows of the craggy terrain, waiting for their chance to strike.

Soon, one of the braver monsters started running after the group. Cloud noted it with mild interest, but knew from experience it would not catch up with them at this speed.

Sora, however, had no such experience to draw from. He sat up straight in the sidecar and gripped the hood excitedly. "There's a monster coming after us!"

"Relax, it won't reach us!" Cloud shouted over the roar of the passing wind.

"Riku!" Sora shouted, completely ignoring Cloud.

From his side mirror, Cloud saw the older teen who had been at the visible edge of the caravan entrance disappear into the back. Then, streaks of neon laser lights veered across the barren land and slammed into the monster, rendering it incapacitated.

It took Cloud a short while to realise that Riku had probably activated one of the projectile machines the boys had installed on the side of the caravan. "Just in case enemy ships show up," was Sora's cheerful but cryptic reply when questioned.

The monster pack apparently took the downing of one of their own as a guantlet of challenge. More and more of them began trailing the caravan and its residents.

Fortunately, none of them were a match for Riku and his homing lasers.

Unfortunately, there was also another wave of monsters approaching Cloud's motorcycle from straight ahead.

"What the..." Cloud was surprised. He had never seen the monsters on the western continent behaving so aggressively before, and he had been plying his trade here for quite a while. He tried to gauge if he could navigate his bike and the caravan away from the incoming throng, but gut instincts told him it would be an exercise in futility.

He sighed inwardly, his thumb hovering over the button that would release the side compartment containing his sword. He really didn't wanted to scare the kids off his business so quickly - he was actually starting to enjoy their company - but it didn't seem like he had any other choice.

He had to pause, however, when Sora suddenly leapt onto his feet and stood on the sidecar with one foot on the seat and the other on the hood.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Cloud shouted, thinking mundanely to himself that had he been normal, he would most probably be having a heart attack right about now. "Sit down!"

Sora just grinned at him, and a giant key appeared in his hand in a bright flash of light.

"Don't take your eyes off the road, Cloud!" the boy urged, sounding way too chipper for a young boy facing a horde of ghastly creatures.

Cloud stopped gaping at Sora and looked ahead, just in time to avoid being decapitated by the aerial slash of a giant praying mantis-like monster. He spared the monster a brief glance as it lost its balance and tumbled away into the dust of the caravan. Beside him, Sora was using the giant key - the giant key, because it just had to be said twice - to whack mobs away from the motorcycle.

And the incomprehensible part was that he was doing a mighty fine job of it.

The monsters would burst into dark tendrils of energy when the giant key touched it. This lowered visibility, but Cloud's enhancements more than made up for that. He continued to deftly navigate Fenrir and the caravan (which Sora had christened Gummi) through the wave of monsters, until they finally broke through the pack and could see the distant mountains again.

Cloud looked at the side mirrors to check if the monsters had turned around and were coming after them or not. Some of them indeed were. His attention, however, was more on the figure standing on top of the caravan roof, back against him.

It was Riku. And he had a giant key too.

"Get 'em, Riku!" Sora, who had turned around and was now facing the caravan, cheered.

Riku glanced over his shoulder and smirked at his friend.

Then he disappeared, and all the remaining monsters vanished at once into a cloud of massive darkness that marked their obliteration.

When Riku suddenly appeared back on the caravan roof, Cloud stopped looking at the mirror and told himself to concentrate on the road ahead.

He was kind of surprised at how calm he was feeling inside.

_Well_, he reasoned with himself, _wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've ever seen before._

The rest of the trip to North Corel was uneventful. The boys had either cleared out the whole area's worth of monsters, or the monsters had learnt their lesson. Cloud knew Barret was away on vacation with Marlene and Denzel. They were probably somewhere in Wutai at the moment, bothering Yuffie and being bothered in return. Whatever it was, he was glad he came at a time when the brash man wasn't around. He wasn't so sure how he was going to introduce his two new hired hands to him.

At North Corel, after he had driven into his usual motel and made sure everything was safe and secure, he got the boys to stand in a line and gave them both a long, hard look.

The boys, for their part, had apparently figured out that he was displeased with them (although it didn't seem like they knew _why_ he was displeased), and were giving each other furtive, sheepish glances.

Noticing that they were attracting the attention of quite a lot of passers-by, Cloud decided that he could interrogate the two boys later. He sighed under his breath and gave each of them a firm hand chop on the head.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," he scolded. As he let that out, he could feel his tensed muscles finally relaxing in what must have been relief. He suddenly felt very old.

Sora looked astonished, as if he didn't really understand. Riku's face was poker, but if Cloud looked closely, he could see a very faint, knowing smile on it.

"Come on," Cloud instructed, gesturing towards the motel. "We've got mail to sort."

**29 April 2013**

AN: Sora and Riku in the eyes of post-FFVII Cloud. Random piece of fluff that has grown out of control. Shout out to Don'tClimbOnThat for putting the idea of Sora the delivery boy in my head. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry to suddenly add this warning but... post-Dissidia spoilers as well. The actual spoilers will only come in chapter 5, but just an advanced warning.

**ooxxooxxoo**

The next few days passed by in a whirl of activity for Strife Delivery Service. Sora flying around town on his skateboard became a common sight. He was charming the people here as well, which was saying something, since North Corel was mainly made up of hard-boiled old-timers who were as stingy with their trust as they were with their pennies. Cloud didn't mind, of course. It was good for the business.

Because of the busy schedule, however, the niggling urge to question the boys about their giant keys and fighting skills was pushed to the back of Cloud's mind for quite some time. Until one fine day, when he overheard them talking again.

Sora was tinkering with his skateboard in front of the motel apartment they shared, and Riku was sitting at the porch, just staring out into the distance. Cloud was in the motel, sorting out his paperwork. The sliding doors to the apartment were closed, which was probably what gave the boys that sense of security to start discussing their future plans.

"I wonder how long we have to stay in this world," Sora started, his tone somewhat wistful.

Riku glanced over his shoulder at Cloud in the room briefly. Cloud feigned ignorance, keeping his eyes trained on the paper in his hands. "Until we finish what we were sent here to do, I suppose," Riku answered, when he was apparently satisfied that they were in an entirely private conversation.

This would be one of those times when Cloud was actually grateful for his inhuman hearing.

"But that's the thing!" Sora leapt to his feet and was gesticulating wildly. "We don't even know what we're here for, and we can't contact anyone to find out, either!"

"Exactly," Riku agreed, "which was why I told you not to touch that keyhole when it appeared."

The younger teen stopped flailing and became silent. "Sorry..." he eventually muttered, crestfallen. "It was just instinctive... you know? Keyhole, meet keyblade, and boom!"

Riku laughed. "I'm not blaming you for anything, Sora," he reassured, "but you're right in that we do need to find a way to figure out what is it we're here for before Mickey launches a multiverse search for us. Just think about all the explanations we'll have to give when they eventually find us."

Sora had all but abandoned his skateboard by now and was starting to pace the length of the porch. "Okay, well... the keyhole never shows up without a purpose. When it does show up it's either so that we can lock or unlock it. And if we do use it to travel to other worlds, we'll have to stay there until the keyhole shows up again... and honestly? I don't know what makes the keyhole show up." He threw both hands up in the air.

"Relax," said Riku. "The keyhole's never _not_ showed up before, right? So it just means it's a matter of time, and probably a matter of what we do. At least we've found someone from your travels who may be the clue to locating that keyhole. For now, let's just stick with him and see how things go."

Cloud stood up, and his action attracted the attention of the two boys, who stopped talking and turned to look at him instead. For a short while, he waged an internal war over whether he should confront the boys about this whole key and keyhole business. It sounded like they were from another world, and the only other creature known to have landed on this planet from another world hadn't exactly been benign.

On the other hand, though, he didn't have enough information. Sora aside, Riku would certainly be able to answer his way out of anything damning, should Cloud really pursue the issue. The problem was trust. The boys simply didn't trust him. They seemed to think he held the key to something, but they weren't asking him for help, or even offering to explain about themselves. The Cloud from a few years ago would have knocked them out and let the rest of AVALANCHE deal with the information extracting. The Cloud now, however, saw and felt differently about things.

Cloud put a hand on the sliding door and opened it, his mind made up. They would have to meet halfway - him and the boys.

"I suddenly remember the day we first came to North Corel," said Cloud, and he saw the boys tensing up, "and I believe we need to have a good, long talk about that. What do you boys say?"

As he had expected, Sora immediately threw Riku a helpless look. Riku wasn't returning the look. Instead, he was looking at Cloud. Cloud could read nothing from his features - the boy was good at hiding when he wanted to.

"Come inside," Cloud beckoned, when no answer from either of them seemed forthcoming. Sora hesitated, but at Riku's nod, he slowly trudged his way into the motel apartment, followed closely by Riku himself. Cloud closed the door behind them but didn't draw the curtains. He didn't want to scare them that badly. Just enough to make them talk a little. "Sit," he pointed at the two other chairs in the room, sitting down in his own chair as he did.

The boys obediently sat.

Then there was silence.

Sora was, of course, the first one to be unable to stand the stalemate. He made a strangled sound and asked, "Would you believe us if we told you we were from another world?"

"As a matter of fact, I would."

Cloud's reply caused the two boys to look at each other in surprise.

"We've had otherworldly visitors before," the man clarified, semi-amused at their disbelief of being believed, "but it wasn't to help us. So I have a question for you now, which you must answer very honestly, because I can tell if you're not. Why have you come to this world?"

The boys looked at each other again. They turned in unison and said in unison, "We don't know!"

Sora stood from his seat and began gesturing. "We were at home, minding our own businesses, when this keyhole suddenly appeared in the sky and I just whipped out the keyblade instinctively because, you know? That's what you always do when keyholes show up! Riku was there, and he said no don't touch that thing or something to that effect, but... okay, this part I swear is true - I mean, the other parts were true too, but anyway: _the keyblade moved and unlocked the keyhole by itself!_ Riku even tried to pull my hand away, but it didn't work! And I had bruises on my arm for days after that."

"It's not my fault your arm is as thin as a bamboo pole."

Sora made a face at Riku, who smiled good-naturedly.

As for Cloud, he was trying his best to process the onslaught of random information. "A keyblade," he repeated, deciding he would have to take the lead in this conversation, or he would never get anything out of it. "That's the weapon you used to fell all those monsters in the wastelands?"

"Yeah!" Sora said, much too cheerfully. In the next instant, the space in his right hand glowed and the keyblade appeared. "It's not really a weapon - it only works against dark creatures. And it's main purpose is to lock and unlock stuff. Though I guess it would really hurt if you swung it at someone's head..."

"Can I see that?" asked Cloud, trying not to let his curiosity show too much.

"Umm... you can try, I guess?" Sora inclined his head slightly and held the keyblade out.

Cloud wondered about that. He understood quickly, when he tried to hold the keyblade only to have it disappear and reappear in Sora's hand.

"See?" Sora shrugged apologetically.

"I see," Cloud leaned back into his seat. "What were you doing before you came here, then?"

And the floodgates were literally opened.

For the next few hours (Cloud kept his eye on that clock in the corner of the room), the boys recounted a magnum opus about light, darkness, Heartlesses, Nobodies, world-travelling, time-travelling, dream-diving, and their journey that started it all off. It was mostly Sora doing the talking, though he kept asking Riku to verify some of his statements. Cloud listened, very patiently, because the story was interesting. He had apparently met them in one of the worlds they had travelled to (but it was not this one). Him, Yuffie, Cid, Tifa, Aerith (?!), and even Sephiroth (?!) were all in it, along with a few other names he didn't recognise but found familiar.

"...and so now Riku's a Keyblade Master, and we were back in Destiny Islands for a respite when that keyhole showed up and... here we are," Sora finished his account and took a deep breath. A look of worry actually flashed across his face for a moment. "Um... was I going too fast?"

Cloud was staring, just staring at the both of them. The story was way too detailed to be a dream or made-up. Which meant it had to be true. So he was going to view it as such.

The problem was, where would that leave them?

"You can't go back," Cloud stated. "That's why you're following me around, right?"

Sora nodded. "The keyhole's not showing up."

"Can't you summon it like you do the keyblade?"

The boy shook his head. "It doesn't work that way."

"You guys don't know all that much about this whole keyblade thing despite having wielded them for such a long time," Cloud remarked drily, without malice.

"Circumstances, circumstances," Riku mumbled under his breath.

"Okay, while my subconsciousness is processing that epic story, you might as well start telling me what ideas you've already implemented in vain to get that keyhole back out."

The silence that next occurred was the pause for the look of utter confusion and disbelief on the boys' faces.

"You believe us? Just like that?" Riku was the one to break the silence this time. He was incredulous.

Cloud looked at the ceiling, thinking back about his own adventures and some of those of his friends'. "Sadly, yes." Then he lowered his glance to take the both of them in. "Now that that's out of the way, any of you keen on answering my question?"

The suffocating silence continued for just a while more, before Sora said, rather quietly, "The first few days we were here, we tried shooting our keyblades out into the sky to see if it would hit something. Or if someone from another world could see it."

Cloud nodded and made no comment. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Umm... we tried putting messages into bottles and sending them across the ocean..."

Again, Cloud nodded and said nothing to that. "Is that all?"

"Basically..." Sora was twiddling his thumbs now. "We'd only been in this world for a few days before bumping into you, after all."

Cloud slowly considered what to say. "Are you sure I'm the person you're looking for?" he eventually asked. "You probably don't know, but Aerith and Sephiroth are dead in this world, and have been for quite a long time." He was proud at how matter-of-factly he managed to report that.

His calm statement of fact, however, caused both boys to gape at him.

"What do you mean-"

"How can they be-"

The spluttering went on for a while.

After the boys had run out of breath, Cloud repeated, "They're dead and have been for a long time. If they've been showing up at your world, you may be looking for the wrong 'Cloud'," he reasoned.

Sora looked absolutely crestfallen. "But if you don't help us, we don't have any other clues to follow..."

"I never said I wouldn't help," Cloud clarified, and the boy's disappointment immediately transformed into expectation. How could a person change expressions so quickly? "I'm just saying there may be a need to look at things a little differently."

"How are you going to help us, then?" Riku, ever the level-headed one, enquired.

Cloud considered the question seriously. "I have some connections," he said. "If something as conspicuous as a keyhole in the sky has appeared somewhere, someone's gotta know about it. We'll start from there and see how it goes."

Relief slowly became evident on Riku's face, although it was Sora who next spoke up. "Riku's been trying to do that since Costa del Sol, but we weren't getting anywhere because we knew too little people here."

"Too little people who trusted a teenager obviously trying to probe, you mean," Cloud shook his head. "Asking about anything strange appearing the sky recently probably didn't help either, I suppose."

"Oh, but we did get some information about that," Sora brightened at the memory. "A giant asteroid was going to crash or something, right?"

"In not so many words," Cloud agreed. "Anyway, I'm glad you finally opened up. _Now _we can get things done." He stood up and flipped his clamshell PHS open. "Excuse me while I call in some favours."

**ooxxooxxoo**

As soon as the North Corel deliveries were done, Cloud herded the boys back to Costa del Sol, where they didn't have to constantly worry about being overheard. He explained to them that the Meteor event was still fresh in the minds of people, so letting anyone even so much as suspect they were not from this world would cause a lot more trouble than they could manage. Thankfully, the boys had not objected, though Sora lamented the fact that he wasn't going to be able to visit Goldsaucer.

"Can you tell me more about the Meteor event?" Riku asked Cloud one day, as they were sorting deliveries in the main basement area. Sora was out delivering things, because the boy had made a right mess the last time he tried to help with the sorting. He was thereafter permanently banished to deliveries.

Cloud looked up in unveiled surprise at the boy. "Why are you even interested?"

"It might provide some clues," Riku reasoned. "I'd really like to go back and tell our friends we're all right, as soon as possible."

"Well, what do you want to know about it?"

Riku looked thoughtful for a moment. "I know some people eventually stopped it from crashing into the planet, but what I'm more interested in is how it happened. The stories I've heard and read made it seem like the asteroid was purposely summoned to destroy this planet. If someone can summon an asteroid from another world, maybe... we could use the same method to open up the path that might lead us to other worlds?"

Not for the first time since knowing the boy, Cloud marvelled at Riku's astuteness. He had known all along Meteor was from another world, but it didn't occur to him that it could be of some relevance to this particular event with the boys. "Unfortunately for you, the man who summoned Meteor is no longer around," said Cloud, "but I'll see what else I can pull up about this."

Riku gave Cloud a funny look that was a cross between hesitation and curiosity. "Who summoned it?"

Cloud looked at Riku. "Sephiroth."

"Oh." Then, "What was he like? In this world, I mean."

"Famous war hero," Cloud said evenly, "before he became public enemy number one."

"I see," Riku lowered his gaze for a short while. "He was kind of low-key in Hollow Bastion. Stayed out of mostly everything that was going on, except when..." the boy shook his head. "I guess you wouldn't know about that, huh?"

Cloud raised his eyebrows slightly, but didn't pursue the issue, figuring he wasn't really interested what pseudo-Sephiroth was doing in another world, as long as he didn't suddenly appear in this world again. Then it struck him. "Hey... Is Sephiroth still around in that Hollow Bastion place you were talking about?"

"I don't know," Riku frowned. "Sora might be able to tell you more, though. He was the one who fought him, after all."

Sephiroth and Sora? Cloud tried to imagine that battle in his mind. For some reason, it kept ending with Sephiroth being buried by sunshine, rainbows, and fluffy bunnies. He shook those images out of his mind. "I'll ask him when he gets back."

"Ask who what?" Sora's head popped in from the stairwell. He didn't wait for an answer, though. "Um... Cloud? There's someone looking for you. I showed him to the sitting room, and gave him some tea..."

Cloud rose to his feet. "Who?"

"He said his name is Reeve..."

Reeve? To say Cloud was surprised would be an understatement. He hadn't actually seen the busy man in person since Deepground. They usually communicated by phone, messages, or Cait Sith. "Was he human or a cat on a giant mog?" asked Cloud.

Sora tilted his head in slightly confusion at that question. "He looks human to me?"

"Drat," Cloud mumbled under his breath, putting away the things he had been trying to sort. "This is probably serious," he rounded the stairwell and bounded up the stairs. "Both of you stay here," he instructed. "I'll be right back." He disappeared up the stairs for a second, then reappeared. "Riku! Make sure Sora doesn't touch anything!"

His piece said, Cloud made his way as quickly as he could to the sitting room. He threw the door open unceremoniously and scanned the interior. It was indeed Reeve himself, in the flesh, and he hadn't think to bring bodyguards either. "What happened?" asked Cloud, urgency in his voice.

Reeve stood when the door was slammed open, and he broke into a wide smile at Cloud's question. "I'm very happy to see you too, old friend," he quipped. "The tea is absolutely fabulous. Perhaps we should sit and talk?"

Cloud scrutinised Reeve's bearing. "Nothing serious happened?"

This time, Reeve let out a jovial laugh. "Sit down, Cloud," he commanded casually, and sat down himself. "Nothing interesting is happening on my end, unless balancing budgets with more zeros than my age counts. In fact, I should be the one asking you that question, don't you think?"

Cloud moved to the couch opposite Reeve and sat down slowly. "Is this about my message to you a few days ago?" asked Cloud, never one to beat around the bush.

Reeve's expression turned serious. "When you, of all people, ask to know if anyone has seen anything strange in the sky lately, I should think it would constitute a cause for concern that takes priority over everything else I have on hand."

Not really understanding, Cloud asked, "So you've found something, then?"

Reeve leaned back into the couch. "Unfortunately, no news of that sort has reached my ears yet."

"Well, then, what're you doing here?" Cloud pressed, annoyed and concerned at the same time.

"After receiving a message like that, I'm here to make sure you're alive and well," said the older man, in all seriousness. "And since it seems no one else has showed up yet, I assume you only sent that message to me?"

Slightly miffed at Reeve's perception, Cloud simply said, "Yeah. Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Yes, considering the organisation I'm supposed to be leading, I suppose it is," Reeve agreed without bluster.

"Completely forgot you had enough intellectual finesse to survive under that wily old Shinra fox for years, though," Cloud grumbled.

"The damage is done," Reeve shrugged, still smiling, "and I now know you're hiding something. Why did you ask about that? What happened, Cloud?"

Cloud thought hard about it. "It's not my place to say, Reeve," he finally answered, "but I give you my word that it's not about anything that might threaten the fragile peace of the planet you've fought so hard to restore."

The very soft sound of tiptoeing feet alerted Cloud to the presences of his two housemates who were very subtly trying to eavesdrop from behind the door. Reeve continued oblivious, not being blessed - or cursed, depending on how you wanted to look at it - with enhanced hearing. "If you're doing somebody a favour," said Reeve, his perception once again astounding Cloud, "then I feel the need to warn you, perhaps unnecessarily, that not everyone on this planet is what they make themselves out to be."

Cloud sighed, trying to look as tired as he could. "I appreciate the concern, Reeve," he began, "but I can take care of myself. I know I don't exactly have a good track record, but I hope you'll just trust me this time. After all that's happened, I think I may have earned that right."

He was never one for pulling rank or emotional blackmail, but the strong urge to protect his two assistants was fuelling his motivation and turning him into a pretty good actor.

Reeve actually looked away. It seemed like the man was caught off-guard by Cloud's sudden show of raw emotion. It wasn't exactly uncharacteristic of Cloud, who had been prone to random displays of strong feelings in the past. Which was probably why Reeve wasn't suspecting anything. Yet.

"I do trust you, Cloud," reassured Reeve, when he eventually looked up again. "And yes, I do believe you have earned that right," the man held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just glad to see that you look fine. If you want me to help, however, I insist that you keep me updated about the status. I will continue to keep a lookout for the information for you, but if the situation ever evolves into something dangerous, I will not hesitate to take action, with or without your expressed approval."

"And I'm grateful for whatever help you can give me," Cloud nodded. "You won't tell anyone else too, right?"

"Unlike you, I'm well-trained in the fine art of fishing for information from unsuspecting allies and enemies alike," Reeve joked. "Really, Cloud. The first message I receive from you after such a long time is, 'Have you or anyone you know seen something strange in the sky lately?', and you expect me _not_ to show up at your door?"

Cloud had nothing to say to that, so he didn't. Reeve was inspecting his cup of tea now, and Cloud took the chance to turn to the door.

"I know you're there, boys," said Cloud, in the sternest voice he could manage. It wasn't that he particularly cared if they were listening in to the conversation, since it was about them after all, but he didn't want Reeve to know that. "You might as well come in and say hello."

A short while later, the door creaked open. Sora had a hand on his head and a sheepish smile on his face. "Sorry... I was just curious... He didn't seem like a client, so he had to be a friend, and we've never seen any of your friends bef... Ouch!"

Riku had given Sora a smack on the head. He then navigated his friend into the room by pushing him to the couch where Cloud was. Turning to face Reeve, he nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

"Sora and Riku, my new assistants," Cloud introduced, and the boys sat down beside him. "Couple of homeless kids I picked up off the street."

"Well, well!" Reeve broke into a delighted smile. "I was wondering who that young man who could make such wonderful tea was! I'm Reeve Tuesti, and I'm very pleased to meet you."

Cloud was surprised to see the two boys gaping. "Reeve Tuesti?" Sora exclaimed. "That guy we keep reading about in the newspapers? The guy in charge of rebuilding the world?!"

So they _had_ been doing their homework. Cloud was secretly proud.

"I'm not sure if everything written in the newspapers about me is 100% correct," Reeve laughed. "However, I am indeed in charge of a global organisation that has the goal of restoring the planet to its former glory."

"Wow!" Sora was bouncing in his seat by now. "That's awesome! I was seriously thinking Cloud didn't have any friends at all, and here the biggest wig in the world shows up!"

Reeve could control himself no longer. He collapsed into loud laughter, and Sora giggled along with him. Cloud silently endured the scene, though he could see Riku shooting him sympathetic glances every once in a while. Not sympathetic because Sora thought he had no friends - sympathetic because he had been saddled with the pest of a boy called Sora who didn't know how to keep his mouth shut when the situation called for it. Cloud briefly nodded at Riku to acknowledge his concern. Riku's eyes promised him that he would straighten Sora out after this debacle was over.

When Cloud decided that they had had enough fun at his expense, he cleared his throat. "If you're both quite done laughing at my alleged inability to make friends, perhaps we can return to the topic at hand and finish this conversation before any other false charges are levied against my person?"

Sora quieted down, but Reeve laughed even louder. He did stop, eventually, but he could not wipe that leer off his face. "Very well," Reeve spoke to his hand, not able to look at Cloud in the face yet, for fear he might break down into laughter again. "What were we talking about again?"

"Whether Cloud had friends or not," Sora prompted in a secretive voice, a mischievous grin on his face.

Riku stood up, grabbed Sora, and hauled him out of the room. "Sorry for the interruption!" he shouted across his shoulder before slamming the door shut.

Cloud and Reeve could hear Sora complaining loudly, until a door slammed and he became out of earshot.

"Still have that penchant for picking up strays from the streets, I see," Reeve remarked, taking a sip from his cup of tea. "I see you've chosen quite the difficult one this time."

"Reeve," Cloud grounded out, "was there something else you needed?"

"No, not really," the older man finished his tea and set the cup down. "But I'll be at the inn near the square for the next few days, if you need me for anything else."

"You're staying?" Cloud stared in disbelief. "What about the rebuilding work?"

"It's in good hands," Reeve shrugged as he stood up. "Taking a vacation is less suspicious than letting everyone know I'm looking for you on purpose. Shakes those guards off, too."

Cloud stood as well. "I'll just say this one thing then," he shook his head, almost fondly. "It's about time, you workaholic."

"I think you should really speak for yourself," Reeve turned around at the door with a knowing smile on his face. "I'm glad to see that you finally took my advice about getting some helpers."

After Cloud saw Reeve off to the door of the villa, he turned back and went to Sora and Riku's room. He could hear Riku lecturing Sora all the way from the entryway, actually, so he made sure he knocked before entering.

"Cloud!" Sora leapt to his feet from his bed when he saw him. "Save me! Riku's trying to make me leak brains out from my ears!"

Cloud didn't attempt to understand what that was supposed to mean. "So as you know, that was Reeve, and he's the contact helping me to look for your keyhole in the sky. There are some conditions to getting his help, of course. You must never, ever let him know you're not from this world, or that you know about Sephiroth, or that you can use your keyblades to keep monsters at bay. He's taking a vacation here in Costa del Sol for the next few days, apparently, and you will surely bump into him. It will not be a coincidence. He probably doesn't trust you all that much yet, despite appearances. Be careful what you say around him. Can you do that for me?"

A brief second was all Riku needed to nod his assent. Sora, however, was glancing furtively at the corners of the room. "I may have a problem with that," he finally admitted. The look on his face was that of panic. "I'll try, I promise I will, but..."

"It's all right, Sora," reassured Cloud. "He's one of the more level-headed ones. He won't jump to conclusions about you if you let slip anything, but it may be harder to get his help that way. And that's basically all. Don't worry."

That provided some relief for the boy, who visibly relaxed.

Looking at Sora made Cloud remember something Riku had said. "Sora, Riku said you've fought with Sephiroth before, in your world?"

The boy's eyes brightened. "Oh, yeah! I did!" he was about to launch into yet another epic narrative about his encounter with the man, when Cloud held a hand up to stop him.

"No, no, you don't have to tell me how the battle went." He didn't want to be stuck in this room for the rest of the day. "I just want to know if he's still there, in your world? And... is Aerith still there too?"

"He's not actually in _my_ world," Sora crossed his arms in a thinking pose. "He flew off somewhere after the battle. I'm not sure where he went. We always thought you guys either went on to participate in an even greater battle or just returned to your original world. You know? _Here_? Doesn't seem like he's here, though. Oh, and Aerith's still in Hollow Bastion, last I checked. Why?"

Cloud didn't know what to say to that. He'd lived so long with Aerith having a permanent spot at the back of his mind that it was strange to think she was still around in another world. Not the Aerith he had known, of course. According to Sora's account, she had been in Hollow Bastion because the Heartless had taken over her home world when she was still very young. That definitely hadn't happened here, and as far as he knew, Tifa, Cid, and Yuffie hadn't gone traipsing to other worlds recently either. "I appreciate your telling me," Cloud nodded at Sora. "She was... a close friend, here. But I don't think the Aerith you talked about is the Aerith who was in this world."

"What?" Sora was flabbergasted. "How can that be?"

"It may be true, Sora," Riku interrupted. "It would explain why Cloud's so different from the person you said he was."

"You mean there are like, a few versions of Clouds all in different worlds?"

"Something like that, except it's probably more like, there are a few worlds where he plays a different role in each."

Sora was still gaping. "I don't get it."

"Neither do I," Cloud offered.

Riku just gave them both a small smile. "Keyblades seem to link the most unthinkable worlds together. If it can go into dream worlds, I don't see why not parallel dimension worlds."

Now _that_ Cloud actually understood. "Is that your theory on what's happening to the both of you?" he asked.

"At the moment."

Cloud considered it. "So going by that theory, no one can cross dimensions without a keyblade, right?"

Riku nodded.

"Does Sephiroth have a keyblade?"

Sora actually laughed out loud at that. "No, but he has this really long sword that's like twice his height, I swear."

"Okay then," Cloud sighed. "No imminent danger yet, I suppose."

"From what?" Sora blinked.

"Stuff," Cloud shook his head. "Very dangerous stuff." He paused for a dramatic moment. Then, "All right, that's enough talking for today. Time to get back to work, you two."

**3 May 2013**


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, when Cloud returned from his rounds outside Costa del Sol, he was surprised to see a man in a touristy beach shirt with swaying palm trees and falling coconuts in front of his villa, apparently waiting for him. Upon closer inspection, he realised it was Reeve. He stared at him for a while, trying to find the right words to say.

Thankfully for him, Reeve spoke up first. "There you are," he said. "I was wondering if I might have to turn into a lobster first, before you finally show up."

"Sora..." Cloud began, but was stopped short by said Sora suddenly sliding into the porch from across the bridge. "...was out doing deliveries. Right."

"Heya Cloud, Mr. Tuesti!" Sora greeted as he kicked his skateboard up into the air and grabbed it. "Riku's still getting all the groceries. He should be back soon. What's up?"

"Something certainly is up, but it may not exactly be very appropriate to discuss this matter while we're standing out in the open and in every passer-by's earshot," commented Reeve, and Cloud could tell he was trying to keep his tone as bland as possible.

"You have something I want, I take it?" Cloud was already unlocking the door and ushering Reeve and Sora inside. "Sora, go to your room," Cloud instructed the boy, who was goggling at the both of them.

"It's all right, Cloud, he can watch it as well," Reeve shrugged. "After all, I doubt my people can keep it under wraps for much longer than a day or two at most."

"What's... going on?" asked Sora, very carefully. They had all entered the sitting room by now, where Reeve whipped out a mobile device and set it on the table.

"This is what's going on," said Reeve. He pressed a button on the device, and it began to project a video onto the walls of the room.

It was a fuzzy, monochrome video of Midgar, likely taken from one of the WRO's monitoring drones that had been flying over the area. It looked as destroyed as it had been when Meteor left it in shambles, so Cloud failed to see what was so important about the video to warrant Reeve's attention. Then the camera shifted angles, and it was now facing the sky above Midgar.

Nothing happened for a while. Then a splotch of darkness suddenly appeared in the clear sky. Cloud frowned and leaned forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of it again. He did. The darkness reappeared, but in a different place. It stayed longer this time. Something dropped out of it. Then the darkness blinked and flickered out of sight as suddenly as it had appeared.

Cloud turned to look at Reeve, who, after turning the mobile device off, looked up at his friend as well. "Is this the strange thing in the sky you were looking for?" asked Reeve.

"I'm not sure," Cloud resisted the urge to look at Sora right now, "but what _was _it, anyway?"

"My men are still checking," Reeve sighed. "For now, I can only hope it's nothing dangerous."

The door to the sitting room burst open. It was Riku, and he was holding a copy of the local papers. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself when he noticed all the occupants of the room. "Have any of you read today's papers yet?" he eventually asked, neutrally.

Sora, who had not spoken a word since the start of the video, blurted out, "Yeah, actually! And Reeve was just showing us a video of that picture!"

"Picture?" Reeve frowned. "Costa del Sol has a local newspaper?"

"Just started about a month ago," Cloud furnished. He held a hand out to Riku. "Let me see that picture."

Riku handed the papers over without a word, and Cloud spread it out on the table so that it was within everyone's view.

It was a picture of the dark spot they had just seen in the Midgar video. Although blurry, it was nevertheless of a much clearer quality than the drone video Reeve had showed them. It looked even more menacing up close. Cloud could see that the dark spot was shaped like a vortex. Skimming through the article, he found out that it was a picture taken by some backpackers who were climbing the mountains overlooking Midgar. The picture had also, apparently, been shared all around the world since this morning.

"There goes my grand scheme to cover this up, I suppose," Reeve chuckled, not sounding displeased in the least.

"Something dropped out of that vortex in the video, didn't it?" asked Cloud. "Did your men manage to find out what it was?"

"They're on it."

"What video?" asked Riku abruptly.

Reeve looked at the boy for a quick second, then wordlessly played the video onto the wall again.

"The quality is too poor to see clearly," Reeve said, as all of them watched the video again, "but we're trying to collect the pictures people are sharing amongst themselves to see if we can piece something together."

"Keep me updated," said Cloud, his eyes affixed on the video. He was pretty sure this wasn't the exact thing the boys were looking for, since it didn't resemble a keyhole in the slightest. Yet he couldn't shake off the feeling that it had something to do with it.

"Of course," Reeve muttered, switching the device off and keeping it, after the video had finished playing. "This isn't just your problem anymore, Cloud."

"You think it may be a precursor to something bigger?"

"I don't think, Cloud, I _know_. Call it a gut instinct of a seasoned crisis survivor, if you will."

**ooxxooxxoo**

When Cloud returned to the sitting room from seeing Reeve out of the door, he saw that the boys were still poring over the picture on the newspaper.

"It looks like it," Sora was saying, "but I can't tell for sure."

"Looks like what?" Cloud took the opportunity to announce his presence.

The boys looked up. "It looks like what happens just before a Heartless appears," Sora was the first to reply.

"And it kind of looks like a Door to Darkness too," Riku added.

Cloud had heard them say those phrases not a few times during their narrative, all linked to things that were not so good. "So it has something to do with the keyhole you're looking for?"

"I really don't know..." Sora was frowning - a rare occurrence in itself. "I have to see it myself first, but... I have a feeling... it's related."

In his mind, Cloud was evaluating all possible methods he could use to bring the boys to Midgar without anyone (especially not Reeve) knowing.

He decided that it would probably be faster and less painful to just ask Reeve to bring them all there.

The problem was, though, if the hole would reappear in the Midgar sky. If it didn't, they would have wasted a trip and he would now owe Reeve a big favour. He wasn't sure if he wanted to owe the man any favours, considering the organisation he was currently running.

"You know, that thing that fell out of the hole? It kinda looked like a gummi block," Sora's remark drew Cloud out of his thoughts and back into reality.

"Hmm..." Riku was considering that. "I guess you may be right..."

Cloud sort of remembered what a gummi block was. It was that thing they used to build ships that could traverse worlds. It became available when barriers between worlds were torn down by Heartlesses, or something like that. "Does that mean the barrier to our world has been torn down?" Cloud asked.

Sora looked up at that. "I don't know! Gummi blocks don't usually appear like that. This is all very strange."

"We don't know for sure if that's really a gummi block yet," Riku reminded the both of them.

"Well, I don't think it was a Heartless, at least."

"That, I do agree."

Cloud folded his arms across his chest and thought about it. "There's nothing else for today, so go ahead and do what you want," he eventually told them. "At any rate, I think we'll have more information tomorrow, whether we like it or not."

It turned out that Cloud was right, because Reeve showed up the next day in the morning, still dressed in his vacation clothes and with a margarita in hand this time.

"Are you still on vacation?" asked Cloud dubiously.

"Of course I am," Reeve scoffed. He stirred his margarita and continued, "Well, we've recovered that thing that fell from the hole in the sky. Our scientists have been looking at it, but it's completely out of their league at the moment."

The two of them had been walking towards the sitting room as they talked, when Sora's head popped out of the window to the side garden. "Cloud! We were just wondering... oh. Hi Mr. Tuesti," he waved at the guest, who waved back.

"Yes, Sora?" Cloud sighed, wondering what new caravan upgrade they were going to wax lyrical about this time. The previous one involved some very badly applied laws of aerodynamics. Cloud wasn't sure if he could ever look at chicken wings the same way again.

"Um... so anyway... we were wondering if we could borrow some wine...?"

"Wine?" Cloud thought he might have heard wrongly. "You need wine? For the caravan?"

"Not... really..." Sora glanced to a side, where Riku probably was standing. They seemingly communicated telepathically for a few seconds. Then Sora turned back to look at Cloud. "It's for a private project of ours." The sentence ended with the biggest grin Sora could flash.

Cloud knew at once something else was up. "You guys are underaged."

"Yeah..." Sora's face fell. "That's why we're asking for your permission!"

"No."

"Oh, come on!" Sora was about to climb into the house via the window. "We're not planning anything stupid or dangerous, I swear!"

"Still, no," Cloud repeated.

Sora was about to protest again when Reeve interrupted. "Are you going to drink this alcohol you're asking for, young man?" he directed his question to Sora, who stared at him with his mouth open for a second before shaking his head. "Very well," the man walked over and handed the boy his glass of margarita. "It has a little bit of lemon and lime in it, but it's mostly alcohol, really," he smiled knowingly at the boy. "Don't worry, I haven't touched it yet!"

"Wow, Mr. Tuesti, you're the best!" Sora exclaimed. "Thanks, Cloud!" he grinned at his employer, just for good measure, and disappeared back into the side garden.

"Reeve!" Cloud finally found an opening to speak out. "They're not old enough to be handling alcohol!"

"They said they're not going to drink it," Reeve waved Cloud's objection aside. "Now, about that thing that fell from the hole in the sky..."

"You'd better not let me catch you stumbling into the house drunk!" Cloud ignored Reeve in favour of shouting out of the window, to which Sora and Riku shouted something that sounded like an agreement back.

When Cloud and Reeve finally made it to the sitting room, Reeve took the opportunity to burst out laughing in the privacy of the room. "One would've thought you've changed occupations, Cloud," Reeve managed, between polite guffaws. "When had your delivery service morphed into a full-time daycare centre?"

"It has not," retorted Cloud, though in retrospect he did agree that he sounded somewhat like an agitated kindergarten teacher. Dealing with Sora on a daily basis did that to you. "What were you going to say about that thing that fell from the sky again?"

Reeve cleared his throat. "It appears to be a block of rubber at first glance. Highly-elastic, smooth texture, lightweight, and easily malleable. The scientists are conducting further experiments on it, to see if they can duplicate its properties. It is like nothing we have ever seen before, and may come in very handy for our ultimate objective."

"Doesn't seem like it's anything dangerous to me, then," Cloud remarked.

"It doesn't seem to be anything dangerous by itself, yes, but what I fear is the implications it comes with." A shadow fell over Reeve's eyes. "It's like nothing we have ever seen before, Cloud. Nothing native to this planet. What do you think that means? What do you think that darkness in the sky that it fell from represents?"

Cloud looked at Reeve, trying to read the man from his demeanour. "You're afraid of another crisis from the sky."

Reeve shook his head. "It's not another 'crisis' I'm worried about, Cloud, but the 'entity' who may be behind it."

"You have an idea?"

"That is just the thing," Reeve sighed. "I haven't the slightest clue who it could be."

Cloud tried to consider things from Reeve's point of view. "Why are you so sure someone's behind it? For all we know, it could be just a natural phenomenon."

"That no one has made records of in a few thousand years?" Reeve's question was rhetorical. "I hardly think that's possible, although I wouldn't say it's improbable. However, all told, I'm rather fond of aiming for the worst case scenario nowadays. And I'm getting quite used to it, if I do say so myself."

"Let's say," Cloud gestured, "let's say someone is really behind this, then. What should we do, then?"

"We wait," Reeve slumped and sank slightly into his seat. "Because there's always a point to an action. There'll be a message, a demand, a warning - something will happen. Until then, our hands are tied."

Cloud hesitated to ask his next question, but eventually did. "And what if nothing comes?"

Reeve smiled wistfully. "We'll talk about it then," was all he would say.

"Well," Cloud shrugged, "this is just my opinion, but I think... This isn't as serious as you're making it out to be. I know it's your job to deal with such things, but you know... gut instinct of a crisis survivor?"

The older man looked long and hard at his friend. "Interestingly, I do... feel that way, too. Like this isn't a problem that threatens the very well-being of the planet on a global scale. And I find it eerily strange to be thinking in this manner. That's probably part of why I'm trying so hard to figure out if something - anything - is going to happen."

Cloud was about to say something, when he heard rapidly approaching footsteps. They were so loud, even Reeve noticed after a while.

"And tea is served!" Sora burst into the room announcing. He was balancing a tea set on a tray, which he quickly set down on the table between the couches. It was a miracle he hadn't broken anything in his bouncing. Behind him, Riku walked in normally and put down another tray with a cover. He glanced at Cloud and Reeve, then wordlessly lifted the cover.

"Well, well!" Reeve was the first to react, clapping his hands together. "That cake looks absolutely delicious! May I?" he asked.

Cloud was still unsure of what was happening. "What?" was all he could say at the moment.

"Cos you know, you're always making the food for us," Sora explained excitedly, "so we were thinking we should be doing something, really, since we're all staying in the same house. And yeah, we wanted to say thank you for taking us in, basically," he finished with a grin.

Riku had handed Reeve a spoon in the meantime, and the man was already tasting the cake. "So that's what you needed the alcohol for!" he remarked.

"I make the food because the both of you can only make sandwiches," Cloud interjected, belatedly. He looked at the cake. It looked like a cake. He scooped off a corner and ate it. It tasted like a cake. With generous sprinkles of margarita. "Thanks," he mumbled under his breath. "I appreciate the gesture."

Sora and Riku exchanged looks of happy approval between themselves. "Okay, that's all for us!" Sora waved. "Keep doing whatever it was you were doing before we interrupted!"

Without waiting for a reply, he dashed out of the room.

"Sorry, we were working on the caravan actually, when he suddenly got that cake idea," Riku ruefully apologised. He bowed slightly and made his exit as well, in a quieter manner.

"I like those boys," said Reeve immediately upon the closing of the door. "Where can I find more of them?"

Cloud wanted to sigh, but a thought surfaced in his mind that stopped him from doing it. This would be the perfect opportunity to insinuate the boys into Reeve's future plans. He decided to try. "You don't need new employees."

"On the contrary, I'm always looking for new staff who can lend a hand."

"Okay, you don't need to poach _my _new employees."

"Such a change of stance," Reeve chuckled. "I remember that big fight you had with Denzel when you refused to bring him along to Costa del Sol."

Trust Reeve to open up such an old wound. "He is barely 12 years old, Reeve."

"Of course, of course, but you know what I mean," the man was looking positively self-satisfied. "Don't worry, I'm not eyeing your new boys. In fact, I am of the opinion that they should stay with you."

Cloud was slightly curious about that. "I'm sure they'll have more a career path if they did go with you, though," he said, and meant it. Even if they were from another world, it didn't mean they couldn't give life here their best shot in the meantime, did it?

"Perhaps," Reeve agreed, "but they'll be happier here." He finished sipping his cup of tea, set it down, and stood up. "I'm afraid I must go, for my vacation still awaits. I'll be checking in again, once I have new information. Thank you for the tea and the dessert."

Cloud saw Reeve out, then returned to the sitting room to tidy things up. He smiled slightly at the sight of the half-eaten cake. Sora did have the tendency to randomly present him with small gifts (mostly candy or ice-cream he couldn't finish by himself), but this one really took the figurative cake. He put the leftovers into the fridge, washed the tea set, and was preparing to return to the basement when he heard Reeve's voice, drifting in from the window to the side garden.

He groaned.

Sticking his head out of the window, he saw that it was indeed Reeve, and he was inspecting the caravan as Sora prattled on about all its unnecessary additions and accessories. Riku stood off to a side, staring at them with a look of fond exasperation on his face. Needless to say, it was he who noticed Cloud first. He glanced upwards, then shook his head slightly while indicating at Sora and Reeve's general direction.

"I thought your vacation was waiting for you, Reeve?" Cloud finally opened his mouth to ask.

Both Sora and Reeve stopped in the middle of their conversation and looked up at the window where Cloud was standing by. "That's the thing about vacations, my friend! They have the nasty habit of changing plans when you least expect it."

"Mr. Tuesti is really good with such things, apparently!" Sora added cheerily. "He makes robots or something, in his spare time."

"You mean, all the time," Cloud mumbled under his breath. "I take it as your vacation has officially moved into my villa as of now?"

Reeve laughed heartily. "Well, if you're offering..."

"Reeve, you know this mansion is always open to you. All of you."

"Of course we do," Reeve smiled up at his friend. "We also happen to know that you value your privacy. And of course, that you're running a business here after all."

"Whatever you say," Cloud waved it aside. "Get one of the boys to lend you their keys for the time being. And now I really need to go back to work."

The boys and Reeve waved Cloud goodbye, and as he trotted back down to the basement, he couldn't help but wonder how his life had taken such a sudden turn in the mere span of a few weeks.

The most sudden turn was probably that he wasn't unhappy about it at all.

**ooxxooxxoo**

Having Reeve around turned out to be a blessing in disguise, Cloud figured, as he could now leave Costa del Sol to go as far as Gongaga to deliver some very, very late parcels. The journey to and fro would take at least two days as he would be visiting some other towns in the meantime, and he wasn't sure he trusted the boys to not destroy the villa while he was gone yet. That was where Reeve came in.

"You want me to babysit?" Reeve sounded amused, when Cloud asked him to look after the house (and its inhabitants) while he was out. "I'm on vacation, you know?"

Cloud gave him the best you-must-kidding-me glare he could manage. Then he put on his goggles, turned Fenrir's engine on, and sped away into the sunset.

As he went about his business, Reeve kept him updated on the status in Costa del Sol via phone messages. The first one went something like this:

_Dear Cloud, what have you done to these poor boys? They were positively spooked when I told them you had gone off by yourself to deliver parcels to Gongaga. They were so sure you were going to be gobbled up by dangerous monsters. I had to fight to keep my face poker. That was good training. Anyway, I have managed to convince them that you knew your way around, since you've been doing this for years, after all. Is it just me, or are they under the impression that you cannot fight at all?_

The lengthy message ended there. Cloud raised his eyebrows, mostly to himself. Did he never mention anything about his sideline to the boys?

Oh yeah, he never did.

The day passed in a whirl and he forgot to reply Reeve. The next message came.

_No, it's not just me. They really don't think you can defend yourself._

Cloud had no idea what to reply to that, so he didn't.

_Are you keeping this a secret on purpose? Not that I blame you, but it's so heartrending to see them worry about you like that. :)_

Of course, Cloud knew by the smiley face at the end that Reeve was joking. He found some time in between driving from place to place to reply. _I'm not doing it on purpose. It's just not something that comes up in normal conversation._

Some time later, when Cloud was alone with his thoughts at night, it got him thinking about how that particular misunderstanding could have ever happened. After Reeve had formed WRO, he disclosed as much information about the Meteor tragedy without revealing any of their participations, besides the fact that _some people _had gone in there to stop Sephiroth. Only a handful of people actually knew about Cloud and company's sojourn to the Northern Crater. In the eyes of the world, the Meteor affair was something that was gone and done. It was no surprise that the boys had never come across his name or adventures when doing their homework about this world.

And it occurred to him that they had never really seen his sword before. His room in the basement was off-limits to them, as was the interconnected garage in the backyard. Those were the two places he usually took the sword to, although he kept it in Fenrir virtually all the time nowadays.

No wonder they had been so adamant about those monsters in North Corel.

Though Cloud now knew the current misunderstanding was almost entirely his fault, he really couldn't bring himself to care.

The next day, as he was preparing to return to Costa del Sol, Reeve sent him a message again.

_Drop by Cosmo Canyon on your way back. Nanaki is back and may have something you need._

Which meant Nanaki had information about the dark spot in the sky. Not surprising, considering the giant observatory in Bugenhagen's house. The detour to Cosmo Canyon took less than the better half of a day. He had barely secured Fenrir in a safe lot that the townspeople had reserved specially for him when the phone notified him he had a few new messages.

The first one was from Reeve. _I find it appalling that you have yet to bestow mobile phones upon your two employees. How on the planet can they contact you like that? I have taken it upon myself to give them each a set of the latest model on the market. I have left the invoice on your desk in the basement. And of course, I gave them your number. By the way, just tell Nanaki you're collecting something for me, and he won't pry. That is, if you don't want him to know you somehow have an interest in that hole in the sky._

What Cloud wanted to do was to groan. He looked at the other messages.

_Hi cloud are you safe? This is sora by the way_ read the first one.

_Reeve gave us new phones, and this is my number, for your reference. -Riku _read the other.

The final one read, _And do something about that incorrigible unresponsiveness of yours, please._ It was from Reeve.

So for the new few minutes, Cloud painstakedly typed out brief replies to his two new employees and one old comrade.

_I'm fine, don't worry._

_Thanks._

_Yes, Mr. Tuesti._

Then he went to look for Nanaki. Finally.

He found him in the planetarium, observing the movements of the stars around the planet. Nanaki was quick to notice Cloud, and he bounded over to his old friend happily. "Hello, Cloud!" The lion-like beast greeted. "I wasn't expecting you for another month or so. Have you got a delivery for me?"

Cloud shook his head. "I'm here because Reeve told me to collect something from you."

"Oh," Nanaki's ears flopped slightly, making Cloud feel slightly guilty that he hadn't brought anything for his friend. The ears perked up after a short while, though, and Nanaki turned to walk into the archive room. "I was hoping he could come see for himself, but I guess the backup video will have to do."

Cloud followed him. "What is it, exactly?" he couldn't help but ask.

Nanaki went to a table, and held a slim package in between his mouth. After Cloud retrieved it, Nanaki answered him, saying, "It's a video file of the recordings we've been making with the main and minor telescopes around Cosmo Canyon. I asked the people in the Canyon to see to it after I noticed something in the sky during my travels, and I've just gotten back to... actually, I think you should probably see the real thing too," Nanaki walked over to the apparatus that would lift them up closer to the planetarium roof. "Come on!"

Cloud stepped into the area as well, still holding onto the package. Nanaki tripped the mechanism that would lift them upward. In a matter of a few seconds, they were staring at the simulation of the planet and the stars around it in close proximity.

"Watch," Nanaki said, as he pressed a button, and the simulation zoomed in to the planet they were on. Closer and closer they went, until they were hovering just above the globe.

"What are you trying to show me?" asked Cloud.

Nanaki didn't reply. Instead, he turned the planet around, until they were standing on top of Midgar.

Then Cloud saw it.

The dark patch in the sky, appearing in the exact same way it had in the video Reeve had showed him.

"This is a simulated playback of what happened on that day," Nanaki informed him, before he could ask. "I guess you should know about this, since it was all over the news?" he asked. Cloud nodded. "What many people didn't know, however," Nanaki turned the globe and now they were on top of the Ancient Forest, "was that there were a few other places where it happened as well." Even as he spoke, a dark hole opened up in the sky above the Ancient Forest, flickered for a while, then disappeared.

For a while, Nanaki showed him all the other locations where the dark holes appeared - Bone Village, south of the Wutai continent, Mideel, Cactus Island, and some area above the ocean. All of them eventually disappeared, except the one above the Cactus Island.

"That one's still there, by the way," Nanaki informed.

Cloud was already considering if he could go to Cactus Island on Fenrir right after this. Unfortunately, Fenrir didn't swim very well. "Did anything drop out of any of the holes?" he asked.

"Only the one in Midgar."

"Hmm... and the video of all this is in this package?"

Nanaki nodded. "Is something going to happen, Cloud?" the beast asked, the worry in his voice evident.

"I don't know," said Cloud in all honesty. "We'll just have to wait and see. How long will you be staying in Cosmo Canyon this time?"

"I'll be observing those black holes in the planetarium, until I know for sure they aren't trouble," was the reply. "I'll be ready to help whenever you need me, Cloud."

"Thanks," Cloud gave Nanaki a slight smile of gratitude. "I hope I won't have to cash in on that favour."

Although Nanaki offered to let Cloud stay the night, he politely refused. He wanted to get the video back to Costa del Sol as soon as possible. Not just because Reeve was there, but because he wanted Sora and Riku to have a look at it. Right now, it seemed like if there was really anything happening, they would be the ones who could tell for sure.

As Cloud was pushing Fenrir out to the dusty roads of the canyon, a movement in the sidecar (he hadn't bothered to dismantle that yet) put him on the alert. He was about to grab his sword from its compartment when out popped the source of the movement - a gray cat in a red cape.

"Greetings!" Cait Sith landed on the hood of the sidecar and shouted into his megaphone. "I have come to hitch a ride!"

"Reeve?" Cloud made a face. "What're you doing here?"

"No, no! There is only one Cait Sith!" the robotic cat said, pointing a finger at Cloud. "I was passing by, and Reeve decided it would be a good idea for me to hop on your bike for a ride. Due for some maintenance, he says."

Cloud doubted it. "You were supposed to get that video for him, weren't you?"

The cat's ears flattened on its head. "How astute! Well, it would've taken me a good week to reach him with the video at the rate I was going, so it was a good thing you were passing by, too!"

"Where's your moogle?" Cloud sighed, resigning himself to bringing the cat back together. He put on his goggles.

"Aye! I lost him in the wilderness of my mind. That is to say, I forgot to take him when I came from where I came from."

Cloud just shook his head. "Hang on tight," he warned the cat.

Immediately, Cait Sith complied, sitting in the sidecar chair and hanging onto the hood for dear life. "I know how you ride, Mr. Cloud! I'll have you know that if you were in Edge, you'd be booked for a ticket you couldn't possibly affooooooooooooorrrrd-"

The rest of Cait Sith's complaint was blown away by the noise of the wind and Fenrir's rumbling engine.

**12 May 2013**


	4. Chapter 4

When Fenrir roared into the Costa del Sol villa backyard deep in the night, the lights in bedarkened house suddenly came on. As Cloud pulled his goggles off, he could hear stomping in the house. Then there was a thud from the side yard, which he guessed was Sora leaping out of the kitchen window onto the caravan roof (it was his preferred method of going to the side yard, no matter how many times Cloud told him to stop that). He was proven correct when Sora popped into the backyard garage soon after.

"Cloud!" the boy cheered, launching himself at his employer, who sidestepped casually so that Sora fell into Fenrir's seat instead. Not one to be daunted, Sora sat up on the motorbike and demanded, "Why'd you go off without us?!"

Cloud stared at the boy just as Riku and Reeve both rounded the corner (having used the front door like normal people) and arrived at the backyard garage as well. "We'll talk about this later," Cloud said to Sora. He retrieved the package Nanaki had handed him from his pocket, plucked a dozing (hibernating?) Cait Sith out from the sidecar by its red cape, and held them both out to Reeve. "From Nanaki, and... special delivery, I suppose."

Reeve gently took both items from Cloud. Cait Sith remained inactive. Sora had gotten off the motorcycle seat and was looking at the robotic cat with mild interest. "Is... is it alive?" he asked, softly.

As if on cue, Cait Sith suddenly sprang to life in Reeve's hand. "The name's Cait Sith, and I'm the one and only!" it screeched into its megaphone. Cloud snatched the loudspeaker away from it.

"I don't need any more complaints from the town council about my house," he sternly warned the lot. "Inside, all of you, right now."

Everyone quietly tiptoed back inside.

Once they were all settled down in the sitting room, Cloud made Reeve play the video Nanaki had given him to everyone, since it didn't seem like anyone was ready to go back to bed anytime soon. As they watched the video of what Cloud saw in the planetarium, the light mood transformed into something more sombre. Reeve was definitely thinking (and Cait Sith had been shut down again). Riku's face was blank, an indication that he was thinking as well. And as for Sora, he was sitting on the edge of his seat, staring at the video in wide-eyed concentration.

When the video ended, Cloud conveyed to everyone present what Nanaki had told him. "The one at Cactus Island is still there, apparently."

"Has anything else dropped out of those holes?" asked Reeve.

"Only the one in Midgar, also according to Nanaki."

Reeve sank further into his ponderings. Riku asked, "Where is Cactus Island? It's not on any of the maps I've seen before."

"Just an island south of Cosmo Canyon," answered Cloud. "We'll need chocoboes to get there."

"Chocoboes?" Sora tilted his head, only to be elbowed by Riku. All of them turned to look at Reeve. Fortunately, the man was still deep in thought, and did not appear to have heard the boy.

"Reeve, you should go to sleep," Cloud suggested. "It's too late in the night to be doing any brainstorming."

Reeve slowly looked up at that, eyes starting to focus. He smiled at Cloud in acknowledgement. "I suppose you're right. Good night then, everybody," he said, and went out from the sitting room, taking the comatose Cait Sith along.

Cloud now turned his attention to Sora and Riku. "You boys should be sleeping too."

"Umm... we kinda let Mr. Tuesti stay in our room while he's here," Sora explained, "since there are no other room available. We're sleeping here in the meantime," he pointed at the sitting room. Cloud noticed there was a folded futon sitting discreetly in the corner of the room. Sora continued, "and sometimes we sleep in the caravan. It's like outdoor camping! I miss camping..."

"You should be happy, then," Cloud sighed. "We're probably going to be camping on Cactus Island sooner than you think you're ready."

The next daybreak came.

"My friends," Reeve announced, at breakfast, "I believe we need to make a trip to Cactus Island immediately."

"We?" Cloud raised his eyebrows, having already foreseen this conversation and its outcome. Didn't mean he couldn't at least put up a fight, though. "Don't you mean you?"

"No, 'we' as in you, Sora, Riku, and Cait Sith. I have pressing matters to attend to in HQ," Reeve corrected him.

"What pressing matters?" Cloud was confused but interested. "Anything to do with the thing that fell out of the sky?"

"I think so," was Reeve's mysterious reply. "I really wouldn't know until I return, since it's classified enough to be sent over as an encrypted message."

"What are you expecting us to do on Cactus Island?" Cloud pressed on. "We're not scientists. We're a delivery service."

"I suppose Cait Sith will be able to stream any information from the island back to me. I'll be able to evaluate the situation based on that. So take it as a delivery request from me," Reeve smiled gallantly. "Deliver Cait Sith to Cactus Island. You can leave it there and return immediately if you want."

Cait Sith, who had been seated quietly on the table, suddenly got on its feet and began sputtering incomprehensibly. Sora caught it just before it could make a heroic leap at Reeve.

"Isn't that a bit like wanting to attack yourself?" Cloud wondered out loud as he observed the struggling cat in Sora's arms.

"Everyone needs a good workout once in a while," Reeve was saying. "Well? Will you accept my request?"

"You ask like I actually have a choice in this."

"But you do!"

"Nonsense," Cloud sighed. "You couldn't pay me to _not _go, and you know that."

"In that case, I'm glad we have it all worked out then," Reeve said, just as his cellphone rang. He glanced at it and excused himself to a corner of the room.

Sora put the still fuming cat down on the table. "I protest the indignity of being treated like delivery goods!" Cait Sith immediately vocalised its objection.

"Stop arguing with yourself, Reeve," Cloud dismissed the cat's complaints, even though he wasn't entirely sure if it was Reeve or Cait Sith's AI talking at the moment.

The cat went silent for a brief second. Then it perked up and said, "If you like, I can request HQ to send a large aircraft over to bring you and your employees to Cactus Island. After that, you're on your own."

"What happened to delivering Cait Sith?" pointed out Cloud as he folded his arms across his chest.

Cait Sith did not reply, although Reeve was secretly sniggering to himself in the corner of the room.

"I think it'll be safer if we take chocoboes," Cloud continued. "Those cactuers can puncture airships if they want to, but stay away from chocoboes for some reason."

"All right, I'll get HQ to transport your ocean chocoboes over from the ranch then," said Cait Sith.

"What's going on?" Sora was whispering to Riku. "Why's Cloud talking to Cait Sith like it's Reeve?"

Riku was frowning. "I don't know," he admitted.

"Sometimes I don't know what's going on with them either," Cloud grumbled, startling the boys, who hadn't expected him to have heard their conversation. Ignoring their reaction, Cloud picked Cait Sith up by the cape. The cat was beginning to show signs of lucidity again. Instead of hanging limp, it was now swinging its front paws around.

"Mr. Cloud! I demand to be put down at once!"

"Sure," Cloud said, "once you explain to these two boys what you are."

Cait Sith turned to look at Sora and Riku. "Mr. Sora and Mr. Riku," it bowed in midair. "I am the one and only Cait Sith, robot property of Reeve Tuesti, erstwhile double spy and many times protector of my comrades! Reeve uses mind-control to manipulate me when he needs to, but I am essentially my own cat when he's off doing other mind-intensive stuff." The cat turned around to look at Cloud, who was still holding it up by its cape. "Will that do?"

"Fair enough," Cloud released the robot onto the table. "Just know that whatever you tell Cait Sith will end up with Reeve, so keep your deepest, darkest secrets to yourselves when the cat's around, understand?" Cloud kept his tone light-hearted, but he knew the boys understood the subtle implications he was sending out when he saw them turn serious momentarily.

Then Riku reached out to lift the cat up with both hands, despite its loud protests. "It looks so real..." he mumbled. "Feels real too... are you really a robot?"

Cait Sith opened its mouth to answer, but Sora snatched it out of Riku's hands. "Who cares!" The boy laughingly held the cat close to his chest. "It's just a cute little kitty! Cut it some slack! Hey Cait, do you wanna see our caravan? Reeve made quite a few modifications to it! Maybe you could tell us more about what they are!"

"My!" Cait Sith preened at being called cute. "I simply must see this caravan, then!"

Sora whooped and gobbled down the rest of his breakfast with Cait Sith still in his arms. Then he bade everyone a quick farewell and leapt out of the kitchen window before Cloud could tell him to use the front door.

"I'll make sure they don't get into too much trouble," Riku said as he stood. He calmly proceeded to the front door.

Soon after that, Reeve finished his call and rejoined Cloud at the table, where the latter was chewing thoughtfully on a piece of toast. "A gil for your thought?"

Cloud slammed his hand on the table, startling Reeve. It was almost as if he had expected Reeve's question and had done that with the purpose of alarming him. "I've been thinking and I just don't get it. Why does Sora and Riku have to follow me to Cactus Island? It's dangerous there. They should be staying here. Or with you. Or somewhere safe."

It actually took Reeve a while to regain his composure. "I understand you're concerned," he began, rather uneasily, "but there's no place for underaged teenagers in WRO, and I'm not sure they'll agree to stay behind quietly either. They're not entirely pushovers, Cloud. I've seen them sparring with each other in the garden. I can only presume that their status as orphans has forced them to grow up much faster than they were supposed to."

Cloud had to close his opened mouth. "You've seen them sparring?" he asked.

"Haven't you?" Reeve raised his eyebrows questioningly. "You should do that sometimes. They're actually pretty good."

Cloud wondered how much Reeve had observed about the boys during his short stay in the villa. "Good enough for cactuers?" he decided to simply be interested in what Reeve thought of their abilities.

"Hmm, I don't know, I'm not much of a combatant myself," lamented the executive, "but they have a natural flair that I don't see in many people, even in the military. And I've seen many."

To be entirely honest, Cloud hadn't had a good view of their skills the last and only time they displayed it. It seemed mostly like random whacking, although Riku's disappearing act was kind of impressive. And if their tale was to be believed, they too were mighty warriors in their own right. Reeve apparently agreed. That was something Cloud could work on.

"Tell your men to bring a few standard issue swords over when they come with my chocoboes," Cloud said to Reeve. "Then we'll talk about their natural flair."

**ooxxooxxoo**

The next day, WRO agents arrived with everything Cloud had asked for, plus a giant robotic moogle. Cait Sith cheered when it saw the moogle, immediately clambering on. Sora and Riku were staring at the moogle with undisguised surprise. They were often surprised, since they hailed from another world. However, there was something different about the astonishment this time. Cloud made a mental note to talk to them about that later.

A call came for Cloud as the agents were leading the chocoboes to the side yard. It was from Nanaki. Dread pooled at the bottom of Cloud's stomach as he quickly picked the phone up. "Nanaki?"

"Cloud," the young beast said urgently, "the hole above Cactus Island is slowly growing smaller. I fear it may disappear within the day at this rate."

Alarm bells went off in Cloud's head. If they missed this hole, they had no way of knowing when the next one would show up, and if they could even reach it on time. He checked the time. It was still morning. "Got it, Thanks. I'm on my way," he replied and ended the call.

Making his way purposefully to the by now rather crowded side garden, he started giving orders, "Move the chocoboes and all requested supplies into the caravan. We're setting off immediately."

"Wait, what happened?" asked Reeve, even as Cloud began leading the chocoboes into the caravan.

"Nanaki called. The hole's shrinking."

Reeve looked aghast for a moment, his mind likely going through the same line of thought Cloud had, earlier. "Why not just take the chocoboes?"

"Fenrir's faster on land. We'll switch to them once we get to the southern tip of the continent."

"I see," Reeve then turned to his agents. "Load the supplies onto the caravan!"

The agents saluted and immediately went about carrying out their orders.

"I'm going to get Fenrir," said Cloud. "Tell the boys about the swords."

Reeve nodded in understanding. He started walking towards the two boys, who were currently staring at the swiftly moving agents in slight confusion.

When Cloud returned, he was pleased to note that the chocoboes were in the caravan with all the supplies they needed to make the trip. He tossed a few cans of fuel for Fenrir into the caravan and connected the two vehicles. Sora and Riku were listening to Reeve explain something, each with a sword in hand. Cloud thought that really didn't suit their images. "Boys! Get in!" shouted Cloud, deciding to rescue them. Properly distracted, they stammered some hasty apologies to Reeve and ran towards the caravan.

Cloud was surprised Sora didn't try to take the sidecar this time, but he realised that Cait Sith and his moogle had already laid claim to it. He rolled his eyes at the cat when it flashed him a thumbs-up.

"Be careful!" Reeve called out over the loud roaring of Fenrir's engine. Cloud nodded once in acknowledgement.

And then they were off.

To get to Cactus Island, they had to first drive all the way to Gongaga, pass by the town, and turn west towards the southern cape a river away from the Ancient Forest. Cloud had Fenrir on full throttle, ignoring the violent lash of sandy winds against his exposed skin. It was their last known chance to see this mysterious hole in the sky for themselves, and he knew the boys would be sorely disappointed if they missed it, which would make _him_ disappointed in turn. Since he had declared himself their self-appointed guardian, he might as well go the whole nine yards.

Oh, and then there was the fact that he wanted to see it for himself, too. Adventurer's blood and everything.

As they neared the cape, however, Cloud had to slow down.

He saw bobbing green things in the sea near the beach of the continent they were on. He thought they looked like the cactuers, but there had never been documented records of cactuers leaving their home island. He decided to turn a blind eye to them for now. Cloud knew of a cove in the cape that would shield Fenrir and the caravan from the elements until they returned. He parked the vehicles there and sent Cait Sith out to scout the territory, telling it to specifically scrutinise the sea very carefully.

As soon as he judged Cait Sith to be out of earshot, he turned to the two boys, who had disembarked as well.

"I don't think I need to tell you what _not_ to do in front of Cait Sith?"

"We understand," Riku assured him while glancing at the sword in his hand. "Reeve actually said the cactuers will leave us alone if we stay on the chocoboes, but he gave us swords just in case. They'll be good replacements."

"Reeve is right, the cactuers generally leave chocoboes alone," Cloud nodded. "Actually, chocoboes are natural monster repellants, so just stay on them."

Sora was glancing uneasily at the few chocoboes roosting in the caravan. "I don't know how to ride a chocobo..." he finally admitted. "What if they throw me off?"

"They won't," Cloud said, after letting out a short chortle, "if you don't kick them in a sensitive spot. Come on, get them off the caravan."

The three moved to retrieve the chocoboes, but were interrupted by a booming yelp that could only be Cait Sith on his megaphone. As they turned to look at the entrance of the cove, they saw the moogle bouncing its way over with a speed that belied its appearance. "Incoming cactueeeeerrrssss!" was the unceremonious warning.

Sora and Riku were immediately by Cloud's side, swords poised. They dashed out of the cove in unison, toward the single visible cactuer that was toddling after the fleeing Cait Sith.

"You forgot to take the swords out of the sheaths..." Cloud reminded them, belatedly. They had already started attacking the cactuer. He sighed and shook his head. Going back to Fenrir, he released the sword compartment and took his fully combined sword out, feeling its reassuring weight for a moment. Then, he put it on his back. "Stay here until we come get you," Cloud told the chocoboes. The chocoboes warked softly in acknowledgement.

Cloud stepped out of the cove into the sunlight. Even from here, he could see the small dark dot in the distant sky that was their target. In front of him, Cait Sith, Sora, and Riku were valiantly trying to fend off the cactuers, which had mysteriously multiplied. Cait Sith's moogle was already sporting needles on its large body. Sora and Riku were also trying their best to defend themselves from the cactuers without giving too much of themselves away. This was turning out to be an utter riot, Cloud decided.

So when he heard a panicked Riku shout, "Sora!", his body moved on its own towards where Sora was. The boy had apparently just defended himself from a Mystery Kick attack, only to have the sword in his hands kicked away from him. The force of the attack had sent him sliding across the ground, and the cactuer had leapt into the air, preparing to unleash its 1000 Needles attack.

Cloud Bravered the prickly thing into halves.

"Why are you always so fashionably late?" Cait Sith complained from a few feet away, speaking into its megaphone to ensure that it was heard.

Ignoring the cat for now, Cloud lifted his sword up from the ground and balanced it across his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he turned around to ask the gawking Sora, who was still flat on the ground.

Sora opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound came out of it. Riku had arrived by this time, and he, too, was looking at Cloud with a slack jaw.

"Guess you are," Cloud shrugged, and returned his attention to the few other cactuers still on the beach. Something was surely wrong on Cactus Island, if the cactuers were bailing. He activated a barrier and put it over the boys behind him. "Go back to the cove," he ordered, and with a kick of his foot, launched himself into the thick of the battle.

The remaining cactuers never stood a chance.

After Cloud had systematically cleaned the area of cactuers (and the occasional intrepid monster), he returned to the cove, where the rest had retreated to after he entered the scene. Except for a few needle marks here and there, the boys looked generally unscathed. Cait Sith was very carefully removing the needles that had lodged themselves into its moogle's fur.

Upon seeing him, Sora perked up. "Cloud!" The boy had apparently regained his ability to speak. "You can fight?!"

"...Yes?" Cloud didn't know how else he could have answered that. He chucked his sword into the holster he wore on his back. "Does it matter?"

"Yes, it does!" Sora exclaimed. He was practically thrumming with some sort of joy. "That means... that means..."

Whatever he was about to say was cut short by Riku's hand. "Not now, Sora," the older teen shook his head, sparing Cait Sith a brief glance. When he turned, Cloud could see the suspicion and confusion in his eyes.

"I honestly didn't think it was that important," Cloud offered, in an attempt to quell whatever diabolical thoughts were going on in Riku's head now. He _had_ intended to bring this up at some point of time, since Reeve highlighted that fact to him, but there had simply been no leeway for a conversation of that sort in the past couple of days.

Riku scrutinised him for a few more seconds before looking down and sighing. "I think you may be right," he murmured. "We shouldn't have just assumed, either."

"I'm sorry," Cloud apologised, sincerely.

"Don't be," Riku looked up with a small, sincere smile of his own. "More importantly, what's the situation now?"

Cloud took a moment to evaluate Riku's mood and decided that the boy truly had no desire to pursue the matter. He turned to look outside the cove. "Cactuers never leave their island. Something must be happening there now. I have the feeling it has to do with the shrinking hole in the sky. We'll deliver Cait Sith to the island as planned, but since we only have three chocoboes, we can only take the cat and not the moogle."

"Lamentable, but inevitable," Cait Sith sighed, pulling out the last of the needles from the machine mog. "Let us be on our way, then!"

Cloud gave the boys brief ocean chocobo riding lessons. He did not miss the way their eyes sparkled with more anticipation than hesitation. When they saddled the chocoboes, the anticipation turned into full-blown awe. Cait Sith chose to ride with Riku this time, and Cloud thought that was the prudent choice to make. If the crazy grin on Sora's face was anything to go by.

"Hey, Riku! Race you to the island!" Sora challenged, and set off before Riku could reply. Riku barely managed to suppress a fond smile, before quickly setting out after Sora.

"Do you guys even know where that island is?" Cloud shouted after them.

"We'll ask Cait Sith!" Riku shouted back.

Cloud watched the two boys and their chocoboes until they disappeared over the horizon, feeling somewhat left behind.

The chocobo he was on warked rather impatiently, drawing him out from his morose thoughts.

"I'm getting too old for this saving the world thing," the man grumbled to himself as he lightly kicked the chocobo to get it going as well.

**12 May 2013**


	5. Chapter 5

True to form, the cactuers that were bobbing about in the sea either gave the chocobo Cloud was riding on a wide berth or simply ignored it outright. Cloud had always wondered about that. Before he could come up with any logical conclusions, however, his chocobo had arrived at Cactus Island. He looked around for his two employees. They were nowhere to be seen.

"Go find your siblings," Cloud told his chocobo softly. The chocobo warked and immediately set off to look for the other chocoboes. Cactus Island was a rather large island that had remained unmarked because of its denizens, although Cloud was rather sure there had to be some way to tame the wild terrain for human inhabitation. He would have to speak to Reeve about that some time.

As the chocobo ran on, he saw less and less cactuers along the sandy stretch of road. The hole in the sky was quite visible now. It was larger than he initially thought it was. If it had been some black hole, it could probably suck in Midgar in its entirety and still have room for Kalm. Cloud could also see that it was really, literally shrinking by the second. No matter how big it looked now, Nanaki was quite right in saying that it might just disappear by the end of the day.

All of a sudden, his chocobo made a funny wark and stopped moving. The force almost threw him off his saddle, but he held on to the reins firmly. "Calm!" he instructed the chocobo while trying to steer it back on course - towards the direction where the large hole was. The chocobo refused to comply, warking again in an agitated manner.

"Stay!" Cloud commanded, when it didn't seem like he could make the chocobo continue towards the hole. Looking up, he saw that they were standing just beneath the fringe edge of the swirling vortex. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he tried to lean nearer towards the area directly below the dark hole. He wondered if he should get off his chocobo to investigate further, but it seemed like the chocobo might just make a run for it without him the moment he hopped off. He didn't relish the thought of being stuck on Cactus Island until Reeve sent someone to rescue him, so he stayed on.

The current situation meant that the boys had to also be treading around the circumference of the hole, like he was. Since the area the hole hovered over was rather big, it might take him some time to find them by slowly going around it. Or he could just wait for the hole to eventually get smaller. Cait Sith was probably looking up at the hole now, so it was mission accomplished for Strife Delivery Service, at any rate.

As he finally came to the decision to wait, the vortex stopped spinning. Cloud looked up at it, trying to see if he could figure anything out. It didn't work. He glanced back on the ground and was immediately taken aback.

A jumbo-sized cactuer sporting a curly moustache had appeared out of nowhere and was giving him a beady stare. The cactuer was almost as tall as the hole in the sky.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the cactus was dangerous. Cloud very surreptitiously guided his chocobo backwards, inch by inch. As suddenly as it had appeared, however, the cactus went ramrod straight. It trembled like a leaf, then fell forward in Cloud's direction, still in its upright position. Cloud's chocobo warked and immediately ran away, so that the cactus would fall on the sand instead of flattening them.

After getting the chocobo to calm down and stay still again, Cloud turned around to look at the jumbo cactus lying face-flat on the ground. The gargantuan thing was still easily twice his height in that position.

There was a person - a young man - standing on its back, pulling a sword out of the back of the cactus' head. After keeping the sword, he turned around, possibly to survey the terrain. His eyes swept through the area impassively. He looked right past Cloud and his chocobo, as if they weren't there, or he couldn't see them.

Cloud could, though, and for a while, he was busy trying to close his mouth. "Squall?!"

The young man - Squall - snapped his head around to look in Cloud's general direction. He was off by a few inches. "That voice..." he frowned. "Is that Cloud?"

Currently, Cloud was a little confused because he was dealing with a sudden revival of faded memories (which he had _not_ forgotten about, just pushed to the back of his hazy mind for a while, thank you very much), but he knew who Squall was and the circumstances surrounding their acquaintance. "Yes, it's me. What's going on? Are the cycles beginning again?"

"Finally!" was Squall's semi-exasperated, semi-relieved reply. He hopped off the jumbo cactus and looked around himself. Once again, his eyes swept past where Cloud and his chocobo were, eventually landing on a spot somewhere to their right.

"Were you looking for me?" Cloud asked, when it didn't seem like Squall was going to continue the conversation, the latter having descended into thinking-mode after hopping off the cactus.

At that, Squall looked up, still in a slightly wrong direction. "All of us were. You're the last one." He paused to think again. Cloud waited patiently. "The cycles have nothing to do with it this time, we think," he gave his belated answer to Cloud's initial question. "But something... someone, is causing the worlds to... converge, for the lack of a better word. And... they're succeeding."

The lack of details made it hard for Cloud to gauge what the current situation was. He could decipher a bit of what Squall was talking about, though, so he would start from there. Strife Delivery Service - we decode puzzling messages and instructions when necessary. That would be a catchy new tagline.

"I'm the last, meaning everyone else knows about this already?" asked Cloud. Squall nodded. It was unnerving to see him keep looking in the wrong direction. "You can't see me, can you?"

The teenager (sometimes it was hard to remember that) made a face, then nodded again. "The connection between some of the worlds are still unstable. Some worlds seem more connected than others. Zidane and I can practically cross over to each other's worlds whenever we want, at the moment. Unfortunately... so can the monsters."

Cloud spared the fallen jumbo cactus a glance. As the the hole in the sky grew smaller, parts of the cactus that weren't in the shadow of the hole were cut off from view. It would seem like the dark hole was the media connecting their worlds together. "Hold on, let me try something," he said, as he steeled himself and got down from the chocobo. Holding onto its reins before it could run away, he told it, "Go to a safe distance and wait for me there."

The fidgety bird warked in agreement and set off immediately after Cloud released it.

A few thoughts raced through Cloud's mind as he looked at the shadow of the vortex, which he supposed he should be calling a portal of some sort now. If the half-visible state of the cactus was any indication, the space beneath the portal connected this world to Squall's. He didn't know for sure if Squall couldn't see him because he was outside the portal's shadow. He didn't know for sure if Squall could see him if he stepped right into the shadow. He didn't know for sure if he could even step back into this world after doing something like that. He was going to find out.

He took one purposeful step forward.

Squall immediately turned to look at him in the eye, providing tangible proof that he could see him now. "Looks like our worlds are starting to be connected too," Squall remarked, sounding none too pleased.

"Hmm," Cloud wondered about that. He took one step back, so that he was out of the shadow of the vortex. For a split second, Squall had a panicked look on his face. Then he calmed down and simply blinked in confusion. Cloud stepped back into the shadow, and Squall blinked again. "There's this hole on top of me in my world right now," Cloud explained. "The shadow it casts is apparently the key to the connection between our worlds."

Squall's eyes lit up in recognition. "We have sky holes like that too, but the connection between some aren't that stable. Like I mentioned earlier, Zidane's and my world appear to be completely connected."

"So our worlds aren't all that connected yet," Cloud nodded. He folded his arms across his chest, wondering what all of this meant. For some reason, his thoughts kept going back to his two new employees. "Do you know anyone called Sora or Riku?"

Squall frowned at that question. "Can't say I do, though the names sound familiar."

Exactly the way Cloud felt. So what in the worlds was going on? When he opened his mouth to ask another question, Squall and the fallen giant cactus suddenly flickered like a bad television signal and vanished completely. Quickly looking up, Cloud saw that the vortex was starting to spin again. Did the spinning have something to do with the connection as well? He would have to file that away for future reference.

Seeing no point to standing beneath the hole anymore, Cloud moved out of the shadow, and the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach disappeared. The spinning vortex was beginning to shrink faster. Cloud simply stood where he was and watched it do its thing for a while. Then he turned and went back to his waiting chocobo.

He saddled the chocobo and led it around the hole, taking care to ensure they wouldn't get too close. After a while of slow trekking, he could see the figures of Sora and Riku in the distance. They had stayed on their chocoboes, which was a relief to know. At the moment, they were looking up at the portal with very thoughtful looks on their faces.

Cloud navigated the chocobo to go closer to them. Once they were within earshot, he shouted, "Sora! Riku!"

The boys broke away from observing the hole in the sky to looking at him. Sora immediately beamed and waved. "Cloud!" shouted the boy. "Over here!"

Cloud had reached them by now. "See anything noteworthy?"

Sora shook his head. "Not yet."

They might have been standing too far away to see him conversing with Squall. But surely they saw that giant cactus?

"I'm picking up strange readings from the area around the vortex!" Cait Sith suddenly interjected, from where it was perched on Riku's head, possibly for a bird's eye view. "None of it is seems like good news to me!"

"Anything else?" Cloud asked.

"Nope!"

Cloud briefly debated whether to tell them about Squall and the giant cactus, or at least, about the connecting worlds. If what the teen had said was true, when this world became connected with all the others, it would only be a matter of time before Reeve found out, anyway. He decided not to complicated matters too much for his audience just yet. "Reeve, what are our options now?"

Cait Sith ceased moving for a quick second. Then it said, "We should probably try to find a way to stop the hole from shrinking. At least, until I can send a team of researchers over."

"I'm afraid you may be asking for the impossible here."

The cat sighed dramatically. "Don't I know it."

"It's not exactly like we can keep it wedged open with a log or anything," Cloud continued, glancing at the steadily closing vortex. When he looked down again, he saw that Sora, who was somewhere behind Riku and Cait Sith, was discreetly trying to raise his hand. Cloud arched an eyebrow in question. The boy pointed to himself, to the hole in the sky, then tried to make an air drawing of a key.

If Cloud's limited experience with charades was to be trusted, Sora was trying to tell him that he could probably do something about the shrinking hole with his keyblade. Cloud very slowly turned his head from side to side to indicate a firm no. They really didn't have the time to deal with the inevitable questions that would come after a display like that. Sora's face fell slightly, but he complied by doing nothing.

"Hoo boy! Watch out!" Cait Sith suddenly warned, pointing a tiny gloved finger at the shrinking portal. A flurry of colourful blocks suddenly started raining down from the darkness, bouncing across the desert island like land fireworks. Some rolled over to where Cloud and company were, and Sora had to physically cover his mouth to prevent himself from saying something.

Cloud inferred from Sora's overt recognition of the blocks that these were the gummi block things - same as the one that had fallen out of the hole in Midgar.

"My word! They are just like the thing we picked up from Midgar!" Cait Sith cheerily confirmed.

The shrinking hole, having fulfilled its duty of dumping the blocks, zipped up at a much faster pace than usual. In a matter of moments, it had closed up completely.

Cloud was struck by the sudden silence and sunniness. He hadn't noticed the low thrum the vortex had been making when it was present, having trained his ear many years ago to tune out as much background noise as possible or risk going crazier than he already was. "What now, Reeve?"

"I may have to send an aircraft over to pick up all these things," replied Cait Sith, as it looked around at the colourful blocks scattered all over the ground. "That is, if the cactuers don't return by the time the planes arrive."

"I think we can probably carry some back on the chocoboes for now," Cloud suggested. This way, it would be easier for them to hide a few pieces away for their own private examination later, without Reeve knowing. "You can send the aircrafts in later, but if the cactuers are back, then at least you'll have something to work on."

"Good idea, Mr. Cloud!" Cait Sith exclaimed, jumping up and down on Riku's head. The boy didn't seem to mind. Or maybe he was just that good at keeping a straight face. "Immediately, then! To the collection!"

"You heard the cat," Cloud nodded at the two boys. "Go get as many of those things as you can!"

The boys were only all too happy to oblige.

Once they had gathered three saddle-bags full of gummi blocks (those things were surprisingly easy to flatten), Cloud led them back to the western continent. As they rode, they saw that the cactuers were slowly but surely returning to the island they had previously abandoned for reasons unknown. If Cloud was to venture a guess, he thought the giant cactus from Squall's world could have been the reason. Then again, the monsters had excellent inherent instincts that drove them away from anything strange or dangerous. The portal in the sky could have been the reason as well, if that was the case.

Whatever it was, they arrived back at the cove where they'd left their vehicles behind in one piece. The motionless mog perked up when Cait Sith leapt onto it and whispered some instructions. In the meantime, Cloud had managed to get all three chocoboes back into the caravan. Sora and Riku jumped in after that.

"You know what to do with the bags, right?" asked Cloud, watching the two boys very carefully.

"Yes," Riku nodded very gravely. "We'll make sure nothing gets _accidentally lost _or anything, don't worry."

"That's right, that would be such a pity, after all the hard work you've put in to collecting them," Cloud said, as a corner of his lips quirked upwards. He hopped off the caravan to go back to Fenrir, leaving the boys to their own methods of extracting some gummi blocks without Cait Sith noticing. Speaking of Cait Sith, the cat was scratching its head while atop the mog. "What's wrong?" Cloud called out to it as he walked closer. Time to distract the unknowing spy.

"It appears Reeve is currently unavailable in mind and soul," quipped the cat. When Cloud gave it a questioning look, it clarified, "Reeve is unconscious."

That was worrying, to say the least. "Do you know what happened?"

"Not quite," Cait shook its head. "Last we connected, he was in HQ, going through the properties of the thing they found in Midgar with the scientists. The fact that I'm still moving means he's not dead yet, though!"

Trust Reeve to program his robot to say something like that. "I'll take your word for it, then," Cloud told the cat. He was pretty sure the resourceful Reeve could take care of himself, and since he was already back in HQ, he wasn't far from help if he needed it. For now, he decided that he would concentrate on doing what he was supposed to do. "Get into the sidecar and hang on tight," he instructed Cait Sith, who saluted and commanded the mog to hop right in. "We'll go back to Costa del Sol first, and if there's still no contact from Reeve by then, we'll contact him from our side."

"Excellent idea, Mr. Cloud," Cait flashed two thumbs up. Which unfortunately meant that it wasn't hanging on tightly when Cloud started Fenrir's engine and zipped off immediately without warning. Fortunately, though, it managed to hang on to the mog's ears in the nick of time. "Why do you keep doing this to meeeeeeeee-"

Once again, the cat's voice was drowned out by the whipping winds and Fenrir's rumbling roars.

**ooxxooxxoo**

It was nightfall when the entourage made it back to Costa del Sol. Cloud left the caravan unloading to the boys and went into the villa to try to contact Reeve. By that time, however, Reeve had apparently regained consciousness and was well enough to be passing messages through Cait Sith again.

"I'll explain what happened at another time," Reeve was saying with Cait Sith as his mouthpiece. "Please tell the boys that I have already vacated the room. Keep the supplies we brought over from HQ; they're for you. If Cait Sith is being too rowdy, you can toss it out to the streets. I'm pretty sure it can take care of itself. I'll keep you updated on the retrieval status on Cactus Island. Good night for now, and I'll probably be seeing you sooner than you think you're ready."

"Good night, Reeve," was all Cloud could mumble. Cait Sith slowly reverted to its AI.

"And that's that!" the robot cat declared. "Don't worry about me, Mr. Cloud. I'm going to go stand at the corner of the square and entertain the children camping at the beach. I'm sure I'll be as well-received here as I was in the Goldsaucer!"

"Sure," Cloud agreed automatically. He was really tired. Stiffling a yawn, he stood up from the couch where he had been sitting, listening to Reeve's message. "I'll see you in the morning then. Or something."

Without waiting for a reply, he headed out of the sitting room and went down to the basement to finally hit the sack after a long, long day.

But his glorious plan was thwarted when he saw Sora and Riku waiting for him at the basement with the saddle-bags and standard issue WRO swords.

For a moment, Cloud wondered why they were here and not in their room. Then it occurred to him that they might have wanted to talk to him about something important that he had forgotten about. And come to think about it, he wanted to talk to them about something as well.

The soft click of the front door coupled with Cait Sith's gradually disappearing presence told Cloud that the cat had showed himself out of the villa. He breathed a soft sigh of relief. "Cait Sith's gone out to romp the town square," he informed the two boys. "You wanted to talk to me about something, I presume?"

Sora nodded vigorously.

"Sit down, then," Cloud gestured to the few chairs strewn around his basement office in a haphazard manner. He turned on the lights as the boys shuffled into their seats. "All right," Cloud said, as he sat down. "I'm really tired, actually, but I think this needs to be done, so... what do you want to talk about?"

"That sword!" Sora pointed somewhere behind Cloud, throwing the latter off momentarily until he realised he still had his holster on. "It's the first time I've ever seen it without the bandages, actually..."

Cloud unbuckled the holster and moved it to the front, along with the sword that was in it. He drew the sword out and held it upright as he stared at its tip, the way Zack used to do a long time ago. Some time later, having reminisced enough, he lowered his glance to the two boys, who were looking at him almost expectantly. "You've seen this sword before?" he asked Sora.

"It's the one you always carried around in Hollow Bastion!" the boy excitedly furnished. "So you have it here too! That's gotta mean you're the same Cloud I know!"

Cloud had to admit he made a rather convincing argument. After all, his combination sword was unique as far as this world was concerned, having been custom-made to order. The chances of pseudo-him having the exact same sword in a parallel world completely unrelated with this one was rather slim. "So... going by that line of thought, how will that information help you in your current quest?"

This was where Sora suddenly stopped bouncing. Cloud could literally see the gears in his head start spinning overtime. For a while, the boy was dumbfounded.

Thankfully for him, it was Riku to the rescue. "For now, it just means that we definitely have to stick with you. If it wasn't a coincidence that we were sent to this world, then the chances of you being involved in some way is very high indeed."

"That makes sense," Cloud accepted the explanation. He leaned back into his seat and wondered about the strange happenings of the day, from shrinking portal to the giant cactus to Squall. Then it struck him. "Did you get a good look at the blocks that fell from the sky?" he asked. "Are those gummi blocks?"

Both Sora and Riku looked at the saddle bags they had in their possessions. It was Sora who answered this time. "They sure are," he said, but didn't sound as happy as Cloud thought he should have been. "That's not good news, though it isn't necessarily bad news, I suppose, if there aren't any Heartlesses showing up along with it..."

Cloud raked through his memories about the story the boys had told them for more details about the gummi blocks. "If you gather enough of them, you'll be able to build a ship that can take you back home, right?"

At this, Sora's head snapped up. He gave Cloud a queer, unreadable look. Something of an oddity, as the teen was usually like an open book. All Cloud could tell was that he was torn about something.

"I'm not going to just... go back home and leave this world in the lurch," Sora finally said. "That hole in the sky... I'm sure of it. We can close it with our keyblades," he gave Riku a knowing look as he said this. Riku nodded in agreement. Returning his attention to Cloud, Sora continued, "Maybe we were sent here to close all the holes. If that's the case, we don't even need a gummi ship. The keyblade'll probably open up a door for us to go back once we're done."

"We can't know for sure where and when the holes will show up," Cloud pointed out. "Besides, most of them close up immediately anyway, so what's the problem?"

Sora scratched his head. "But they're not _really_ closed up, are they? They might just reappear at another time, right? Only the keyblade can fully seal it up. I'm pretty sure it has to be it! And as for the locating of the holes..." He turned to Riku. "Any ideas?"

"How about that place you got the time-shift video from?" Riku suggested to Cloud.

Cloud thought about Nanaki. "I suppose I could get him to call me once he spots a hole somewhere," he began, "but it's really hit-and-miss. If the hole appears above the Northern Crater or something, there's no way we can get there without an airship..." he paused. "Wait... where are the chocoboes?"

The boys looked at each other. "They looked quite comfortable in the side yard, so we just left them there."

"Excellent," Cloud sighed in relief and a bit of weariness. "All right, so here's the plan: If the next sky hole is in the western continent, we'll take Fenrir and the caravan. If they're anywhere else, we'll take the chocoboes. That should put us ahead of the chase. We don't know for sure if the holes will reappear, but if your keyblades can seal them up immediately, all the better, before they start connecting us with random other worlds..." He remembered Squall again, and wondered how everybody else was doing.

"Sounds like a fair plan," Riku remarked. A short pause later, he asked, "Can I get confirmation that you really weren't purposely hiding your abilities from us for some nefarious means?"

Cloud was drowsy and feeling rather honest. "I guess I _was_ trying to hide my abilities," he said, not noticing the boys tense up ever so slightly. "I really didn't want to scare you guys off before you were even broken in to the business, you know? Sometimes it's better to be just a normal guy." He gave up stifling his yawn and just yawned, thus failing to see the tension ease out of the boys into something like relief and appreciation. "But now I really need to get to bed, and you guys probably should be too. In case you've forgotten, your main role in this world is still to help me deliver items."

"Of course!" Sora grinned as he stood up. "We'll talk more tomorrow, right? Right?"

"Later today, more like it," Cloud said as he looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "Bedtime boys. Don't let me see you until the sun's at least directly above us in the sky!"

The boys laughed and scampered off obediently, leaving Cloud (finally) to his long-awaited rest after a dig or two about the old man needing his sleep.

Thankfully for them, Cloud was a terrible thrower of projectiles. Especially when half asleep.

**24 May 2013**


	6. Chapter 6

Cloud discovered, when he awoke the next day, that the boys had indeed kept to his instruction of only coming to look for him when it was at least noon. Riku had apparently gotten the list of items to deliver from the basement office, though, as both the list and the items were missing. A quick check told Cloud that the boys were not in the house.

He staggered into the kitchen bleary-eyed and began making something that would hopefully make him feel more awake. As he walked by the fridge, he saw a message pinned to it with a magnet.

_We're taking the chocoboes. Be right back!_

Cloud considered the message for a while. He figured that his chocoboes would probably keep the boys out of trouble. He settled down for breakfast, only to be interrupted by his phone. He almost gagged when he saw that it was Sora's number. He pressed the receive button. "Hello?"

"Cloud! You're not gonna believe this but we were right! We _can_ seal up the holes with our keyblades! That was totally cool!" The voice continued prattling on about some thing or the other.

"What in the world are you doing?" Cloud demanded to know. "Better yet, _where_ on the planet are you?"

Some random sounds and loud noises later, Riku's voice came through. "We're around the desert area. Goldsaucer area, I think. The hole showed up all of a sudden, and... we acted without thinking. We're really sorry about this."

Cloud groaned softly. "Hopefully, no one saw you," he sighed. "Come right back here, you two, and tell me what just happened."

"Okay, see you soon then," Riku agreed, and hung up.

Left with nothing to do but to eat his cooling breakfast while waiting for the boys to return, Cloud did just that.

The boys were back in two hours, by which time Cloud was wide awake and ready to unleash his fury on his wayward employees. Until he saw them trot in, mud on their faces and sand in their hair. He gave them both a pointed look, then jerked a thumb in the direction of the bathroom. The two boys grinned sheepishly and began shuffling into their room to get their toiletries, before taking turns to make themselves clean and presentable again.

"Now you can tell me all about your sandy adventures," Cloud said, when they were down in the basement office after the boys had had their showers.

Riku started off. "We thought we would do the deliveries while you rested, and since the chocoboes were clamouring for attention, we took two out with us."

"Monsters really hate chocoboes!" Sora interjected.

"...The birds can outrun them, but even if they're in the path the monsters just avoid them. It's quite fascinating," Riku added. "Anyway, we were on our way back from that small settlement at the edge of the Goldsaucer desert when we saw a hole suddenly opening up in the sky. We didn't know whether to inform you first or not, but when it started to slowly shrink, we thought we might as well try it out."

"Try our keyblades on it, that is," the cheery voice of Sora supplied.

"Sora gave it a go first. Nothing happened. I tried too, but nothing happened either."

"So we thought, might as well do it together! So we pulled a Reality Shift on that thing and some fireworks happened. After that, the hole flashed bright white and faded out of view."

That was probably about as detailed as they could get for now, Cloud mused to himself. He wasn't sure he remembered what exactly a reality shift was, but going by the context, it had to be something like a combination attack. "You sure it didn't just spin into itself like the one in Cactus Island?"

"Very," Riku nodded solemnly.

"What does that even mean, though?" Cloud wondered out loud. As if on cue, his phone rang. It was Nanaki. Dread suddenly filled Cloud, as he knew Nanaki had been watching the skylines of the planet. The red lion might have noticed something. He picked up the call. "Nanaki?"

"Hello Cloud, and yes, it's me," Nanaki's calm, soothing voice said. "I wanted to let you know that the hole above Midgar has reappeared, in the exact same spot. I was just thinking this piece of information could probably be somewhat helpful, although I don't know what exactly it might be helpful for, hence the call. Any new updates from Reeve?"

"He's going to collect the blocks that dropped out of the hole in Cactus Island, last I heard," Cloud said. "And yes, any information will be of help, so don't worry and keep them coming in, Nanaki."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," the beast sounded genuinely reassured. "Hopefully Reeve can find out more about those blocks. We have to be getting somewhere eventually with this entire fiasco."

"I'm sure we will," Cloud was already thinking about the hole in Midgar. "If you find more holes, be sure to tell me, okay?"

"Sure, although that's the only hole I've seen so far, since the one in Cactus Island closed. The planetarium isn't extremely accurate, anyway, since it can only playback what the telescopes record. Just for your information. Don't expect too much out of it."

Cloud actually felt guilty about the relief he was feeling in his heart. "Thanks for that anyway. I'll talk to you soon, then," he said, and after bidding his friend goodbye, disconnected the call. Turning to the boys, he said, "Fortunately for you, the planetarium doesn't seem to have captured that hole in Goldsaucer. However, don't think that gives you a free pass to do whatever you want without thinking the next time, all right?" He shook his head. "And don't let me catch you doing deliveries outside the Costa del Sol region again without my permission!"

"Aww," Sora deflated. "But it was fun!"

Not for the first time since meeting Sora, Cloud really wanted to have some of what that boy was on. He cleared his throat. "The hole in Midgar has opened up again. Looks like the holes don't close themselves permanently. They probably just blink out for a while. If that's true, then your keyblades may be just what we need to put a stop to this nonsense at the moment. That also means that you're going to have to explain things to Reeve sooner or later, though."

"We're cool with that," was Sora's immediate reply. "I mean, he's a really nice guy. I don't think he'll react _that _badly if we tell him we're here to help."

Plus, he had a soft spot for children, Cloud thought to himself. "We don't know for sure if your keyblades work yet, or if the holes really aren't disappearing by themselves. The one in Midgar may be just a fluke. We'll wait for a while more. Nanaki will keep me updated about the appearance of those things."

Sora and Riku nodded. They took their duties as keyblade wielders extremely seriously.

"I was wondering..." Cloud was saying. "If the keyblades can seal the holes up... Does the process go both ways? Can they also... create holes?"

His question resulted in a several confused blinks from the two boys. "None of the holes were opened by us, if that's what you're asking..." Riku frowned.

"Of course that's not what I'm asking," Cloud wanted to sigh, but refrained. "I'm only asking because if it's possible, I was thinking we could try to open one up in the house, to see for ourselves what its effects are."

The bothered glint in Riku's eyes slowly began to clear up. "That's... actually a rather good idea," he admitted. "Except... we don't know if it works both ways."

Sora hopped onto his feet. "We can try!" His keyblade was out in the next instant, and it pointed it at the basement ceiling. "Umm... Open sesame?"

A light shot out from his keyblade, hitting the ceiling and pooling into a glowing puddle there. Nothing else happened.

"That beam of light had better not have gone through the house ceiling into the sky above," Cloud remarked offhandedly.

Riku stood up this time. "I'll go check," he announced, then dashed away to do just that. A rather short while later, he returned. "It hasn't."

"My hands are tiring," Sora complained.

"Here, let me try too," Riku summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the ceiling as well. The beam of light emerged without him needing to say anything. It pooled around the uneven ceiling like Sora's did, but that was about all.

Sora had dismissed his beam of light by now and was staring at the ceiling. "Should we try the Reality Shift again?"

Riku kept the beam of light focused on the ceiling for just a bit longer, then lowered his keyblade. The light vanished along with the action. "Might as well."

Both of them raised their keyblades in unison, and the outline of a double-sided key flashed into view, with each half of the key being made up of a light impression emanating from each of the two boys' keyblade. The basement ceiling wasn't low by any means, but only half of the large, multicoloured mirage key could be seen when it grew to full size. The boys kept the key in that position. Cloud watched as the gathering puddle of rainbow coloured light slowly spread to all corners of the ceiling, glowing brighter and brighter as it did.

Finally, the illuminated key vanished, and the light it had shone on the ceiling transformed in that very instant into a deep, swirling darkness.

"That went better than I thought," said Cloud, as he looked up at the vortex that used to be his basement office ceiling. Even though the basement, being that it was underground, was always rather cool, the temperature in the room had dipped drastically the moment the vortex showed up. There was also a light breeze coming from the gentle spinning of the hole. "I guess that answers the question of whether you can open holes or not, huh?"

Sora was looking up at the dark spot as well. "That's pretty cool! Seems like we learn new things about the keyblade every day we spend with it."

"Where does the portal lead to? Do you know?" Cloud asked.

Riku shook his head. "We have the key to open doors to other worlds, but we wouldn't know exactly what's behind the door until we actually open it."

"So this 'door' leads to another world, then?"

The boys looked at each other. "It's not the usual kind of door that the keyblade opens up..." Sora was saying.

"Going by the keyblade's main function, I'd think it's safe to say that it leads somewhere, at least," Riku continued. He willed his keyblade away and looked back up at the hole. "Only one way to find out."

"Stop," Cloud commanded, before Riku could jump into the vortex. "We're not going to do anything risky. I think it's time to bring Reeve into our confidence. His army of scientists should be able to figure something out without putting either of you through any unnecessary risks."

Before either of the boys could either voice their assent or dissent, however, the portal suddenly flashed bright white. Two confused people fell out of the hole onto the basement floor, and the portal slowly shimmered back into fashionable black.

Sora and Riku had their keyblades out and poised within split seconds.

Cloud reacted a little slower, due to the fact that he recognised the two confused newcomers as allies. He wished he could simply summon his weapon at will like the two boys could. Then again, his memories helpfully reminded him that he could. At least for a time, when he was still gallivanting around with the others in that strange dimension where everything was meshed together. He seemed to have lost that ability when he was sent back.

As his thoughts drifted, the green-haired girl (had she changed her hair colour again?) had gotten onto her feet and turned around. She gasped when she saw him. "Cloud!" she exclaimed, her confusion transforming into jubilance. "Squall was right! You're finally connected as well!"

"Whoa!" The other person, a young man in blue with short, brown hair, had gotten up as well and was apparently more excited about the inside of the basement. "You live in a cave? Like for real?"

Cloud ignored the both of them in favour of addressing the two keyblade holders. "They're with us."

The boys lowered their weapons slightly. "Who are they?" Sora asked, intrigued.

"Terra," Cloud waved at the girl, then at the young man, "and Bartz. Like the both of you, they're from another world."

"That's one way of putting it," Bartz shrugged, and proceeded to make himself comfortable on a random chair.

Terra was a little more hesitant. "Cloud... who are these boys?" she asked to know.

"I'm Sora!" Sora said, all too happy to introduce himself.

"Riku," the other boy nodded in acknowledgement at the girl.

"How is it that you can see us?" came Terra's perplexed question.

Cloud didn't quite understand the question. "I'm supposing, the same way I can see you, or the others from other worlds?"

"We've tried, actually, but no one except those who were involved in the war could use the portals to jump around worlds and be seen by the people of that world," said Bartz.

Come to think of it, Squall did mention something about that. "Jumping around worlds?"

"These holes have been appearing in our skies," Terra explained. "After a while, they start gathering together in one location, and monsters that go near the hole start disappearing and reappearing in other worlds, or other locations of their own worlds. Thankfully, humans aren't being affected yet..."

"Except for us!" Bartz cheerily interjected.

"...and that's why I'm a little surprised to see people on this side of the portal who can actually see us," Terra finished.

Now the bits and pieces of what Squall had been trying to say was starting to make sense. "So... even if you jumped to another world, the people from the other world can't see you, and you can't see them either?"

"We can see them," Bartz corrected, "but they can't see us. Until now, I suppose," he grinned at Sora and Riku.

The amount of pranks Bartz and Zidane must have been playing on the others using that particular scenario made Cloud feel a twinge of pity for the victims. But there was something more important to be discussed. "Is it the same for the monsters?"

"Totally, and that's why we're scrambling all over trying to keep the situation under control," Bartz replied casually, like he was discussing last night's dinner. It was hard to tell if he was being serious or not.

"Some of them are harder to fend off than manikins," Terra commented softly, delivering the confirmation. "They're just so... unfamiliar."

"Almost everyone's seen a Tonberry, though," Bartz grinned again.

This reminded Cloud of something. He turned to the two quietly listening boys. "Besides the sky hole, did the both of you see anything else of significance on Cactus Island? For example... a strange-looking monster?"

The boys looked at each other. Then Sora said, "We saw this really giant cactus... As in... almost as tall as the hole itself..."

Riku added, "Cait Sith didn't seem to pay any attention to it, though, so we thought it was something common on the island, with that name and everything."

"I want to go to a Cactus Island!" Bartz, ever the adventurer, declared. "When's the next trip?"

Cloud wasn't responding, because he had withdrawn into his mind and was thinking. His thought processes were going into overdrive trying to connect all the dots.

Sora and Riku. They were keyblade wielders who could open portals to other worlds - sometimes unknowingly, sometimes forcibly, sometimes just unfortunately. They had no apparent control over what world to connect to. That ability, Cloud had a niggling suspicion, was going to be the key to solving this debacle.

Portals were opening up in this world and the worlds of those who had participated in the war of harmony and discord. The portals were not being opened by Sora or Riku, as far as he and they could tell. There was a strong possibility it could be related to the cyclical war again, although Squall had dismissed that notion.

The barriers between their worlds were made up of something called gummi blocks, which were being dropped all over this world like abandoned bargain sale goods. No signs of Heartlesses, who were usually responsible for such things.

Because barriers were being torn down, worlds were starting to merge together, facilitating invisible monster-and-war-participants-travel. Otherwise, Bartz wouldn't have shown up together with Terra, Squall wouldn't have mentioned Zidane, and Cloud wouldn't be having this giant mess on his hands right now.

Since the worlds were merging through the portals in the sky, and since Sora and Riku had the ability to open (and evidently close) those portals, it would probably be easier for everyone if the boys just dropped by every world and closed up all the portals that were already open.

But who was to say new ones wouldn't open up after they left?

"Are you all right there, Cloud?" Bartz' concerned voice hauled the mulling man back to reality. "I can literally smell the smoke coming up from your head! It's not that complicated, really. Just an inter-world monster hunting adventure, is all."

"Bartz..." Terra frowned disapprovingly at him. "We need to find out how to close the portals too, or the monsters will never stop spilling over to other worlds."

"Right, there's that too," Bartz agreed with a gallant nod.

"So the both of you were chasing some monster when you dropped into the portal?" Cloud asked.

"We didn't drop into anything," Bartz defended himself. "We were just standing around when this new portal suddenly opened up and sucked us both in, completely missing the others with us."

"The Onion Knight must be so worried..." Terra sighed.

"He's in your world too?"

"Yes... as is Cecil. They were with us when this happened."

"Why is everyone over there?"

"Not everyone," Terra shook her head. "Just those who have shown up recently. It's really random sometimes."

"I'm confused," Sora suddenly blurted.

"So am I," Cloud offered. He put a hand on his forehead and sighed. "How long has this 'inter-dimensional monster hunting' thing been going on?"

Bartz and Terra exchanged glances. "There was a lot of flailing before we started realising we had to chase down the monsters, though, so I guess... maybe a few months?" Bartz eventually offered.

"How do you even know if a monster has leapt through worlds?"

"The portals let us know."

"The what?"

"Portals," Bartz was nodding away again. "You can't be transported into another world unless there's a monster from your world in that world. We've verified it already."

"And after you defeat that monster, standing near one of the portals in that world will take you back to your home world again," Terra explained.

After a long silence, Cloud lamented, "This must be what it feels like to catch a movie just before its climax." He turned to Sora and Riku. "Still confused?"

Sora nodded hesitantly, but Riku stayed silent. After a while, the latter said, "I think I sort of understand. Well, the important parts, anyway," Riku shrugged. Turning to Bartz and Terra, he asked, "So the fact that you're here means there are monsters from your worlds in this world, right?"

"Bingo!" Bartz flashed the boy a thumbs-up. He hopped nimbly onto his feet. "So let's go already! There has to be somewhere here that's being attacked by invisible monsters, right?"

Cloud suspected not, since he hadn't heard anything from Reeve yet. "Do you know what monster it is?"

"We usually don't find out until we see it," Terra said sadly. "But since the portals always appear above important landmarks of the world, it gets discovered fairly quickly."

"Except the one that pulled us here, though!" Bartz quickly added. "When I said it just appeared and then sucked us in, I meant it! No warning whatsoever, and it didn't even appear in the sky like it usually does, just right above our heads."

Cloud considered the situation very carefully. "I don't think you're here because there are invisible monsters here," he eventually said. "You're probably here because the two boys opened up a portal that somehow pulled you in here to prove a point."

It was Bartz and Terra's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?" Terra asked.

And so the current members of Strife Delivery Service had to explain everything all over again.

It was evening by the time every question was answered and the situation clarified beyond the shadow of a doubt (at the present moment, anyway).

"We have got to tell the others about this!" Bartz, who had been growing increasingly excited during the course of the narration, literally leapt onto his feet and announced. "And get the boys to come with us and... do something about the whole thing!"

"Wait, Bartz," Terra, ever the cautious, interjected. "Assuming everything is true, what good can be done by getting them to follow us back? They may be able to close the portals, but we'll still need to look for the source of the problem."

"Aww, don't say that!" Bartz protested. "They can see the monsters, can't they? Can't hurt to have more people on the hunting team. Anything else... I'm sure it'll all work out in the end," he finished with classic Bartz bravado.

Suddenly, Cloud stood as well, and all eyes turned to him. He gave everyone present a purposeful look. "You can all keep debating this for as long as you like," he declared, "or you can join me for dinner upstairs."

He didn't wait for them to answer, but as he trudged upstairs with a massive headache and an empty stomach, he could hear several sets of footsteps shuffling after him as well.

Food. It was a multi-universal language everyone understood.

**15 June 2013**


	7. Chapter 7

Dinner at Cloud's villa was suddenly a very lively affair.

Since there was no time for preparations, Cloud had simply whipped out the more palatable looking instant foods, which his employees and guests wolfed down all the same, with differing degrees of culture. After that, the conversation devolved into a discussion about Cloud's business.

"A delivery service?" Bartz blinked at first, then a smile slowly spread on his face. "So you get to travel all over the world?"

"Only where the deliveries take me," Cloud mumbled, still nursing the throbbing headache that had waned only very slightly.

"That's actually very nice of you," Terra politely remarked. "Everyone loves to hear from a loved one staying far away once in a while."

"Letters aren't my main business."

"Still a nice occupation," Terra smiled encouragingly.

"Do you deliver chocoboes?"

"What? Where did that come from?"

"Because you know, I'm hearing some of them outside the window," Bartz jerked a thumb in the direction of the kitchen window.

"We have three chocoboes in the garden," Sora blurted. Cloud was surprised the boy had been following the conversation.

"That bird's in every world," Bartz nodded sagely.

"Except ours, apparently," Riku had joined in as well.

"We have moogles, though, in some worlds," said Sora.

And the conversation was successfully steered into the direction of adorable domestic animals.

"Gah," Cloud gave up and put his forehead on the table. Terra was already quietly collecting the used cutlery for washing.

"I'm envious of you guys," Bartz suddenly switched subjects again, addressing Sora and Riku. "You get to travel multiple worlds! How cool is that!"

"It wasn't always fun and rainbows," Riku very wisely pointed out.

"That's all in the mind," Bartz had a smug look on his face. "It's only fun when you think it's fun."

"What about the rainbows?" Sora asked, innocently.

"Would anybody like some coffee or tea?" Terra interrupted.

There was unanimous agreement (except from Cloud, as he was busy trying to shut everyone out of his already crowded mind). Regardless, Terra tapped on Cloud's shoulder and asked him to show her where the cups were. Cloud was glad to oblige.

"I'm sorry Bartz had to be the one the portal chose to bring here," she quietly said to Cloud once they were at the kitchen counter, looking for cups. "I know he can be boisterous at times, but he doesn't mean to intrude or anything, really."

"I know," Cloud managed a small smile. "You don't have to apologise for anything. I'm just busy being awed by the scale of the situation at the moment."

"Well don't be," Terra smiled back as well. "We're all in this together, like we were the last time, or have you forgotten the lessons we learnt? Now that we've more or less figured out a way to control how we travel into worlds, I think things can only get better from here."

"From the way you're talking, I'm assuming you guys have a general plan, or something?"

"The Warrior of Light is leading the hunting team," she explained, while Cloud gathered the cups and turned on the coffee machine. "I'm not sure which world he's in now, but relatively more monsters from his home world are dropping into other worlds, so that keeps him too busy to really do anything else. Squall is our de facto strategy master. We'll probably have to inform him about this new development so that he can integrate it with his other plans."

"Sounds like I'll be talking with the both of them sooner than later," Cloud was almost dreading talking to the lofty Warrior. He wasn't afraid to admit that he (and he knew many of his other comrades were as well) was slightly intimidated by the man's straight-laced nature. Nevertheless, the Warrior was a great ally to have, especially in a large-scale crisis like this. If anything, his firm stance on walking on the path of the light was always something they knew they could count on.

"I'm sure they'll be looking forward to speaking with you as well," Terra seemed genuinely happy at the prospect of everyone getting to meet everyone else again. The beverages were ready by this time. "Once we get back, we'll let the others know about the situation."

The drinks were brought to the table, and the chattering boys happily gulped them down while still chattering. Cloud allowed them to serve as background noise for his contemplations. "Besides hunting monsters, what plans do you guys currently have now?" he asked Terra over the noise, after a while.

Terra sipped on her cup of tea. After setting it down properly, she turned and answered, "Eliminate all monsters as soon as possible to keep casualty rate down. Collect as much intel from people in all the worlds as possible. Submit existing maps of our worlds with sky hole locations clearly marked to Squall. That is all for now from our strategy master."

Maps? Cloud's mind was boggled, although he could totally see Squall issuing instructions like that. "Guess I should start preparing my map too, huh?" he joked.

"I'm sure he would appreciate that," Terra replied, noncommitally.

"Except for the fact that there are no sky holes in this world," Cloud continued. When Terra looked questioningly at him, he elaborated, "They're not permanent. Yet, I think. They'll blink out after a while."

"Maybe you can just mark the locations of where they had appeared before, then," Terra suggested. "At any rate, Squall was quite happy that you're finally connected as well, because that would vindicate his theory that the warriors of harmony of the final cycle are important pieces to this event. Hard to do that when no one could get a hold of you at that time."

"Would probably make it easier for him to come up with a solution too," Cloud added. "I'll see to that map when I have the time. When do you guys need to return?"

"Until we can be absolutely sure that there are no invisible monsters rampaging around in this world!" Bartz suddenly entered the conversation, startling both Terra and Cloud. Belatedly, Cloud realised his mind had registered that conversation between the boys had died out quite a good few seconds ago, and they were all tuning in to his conversation with Terra instead. He wasn't just getting older, he was getting more careless as well. He probably needed to see to that too. "No, seriously, keyblades and everything aside, I'm not convinced yet we're not needed in this world. We just have to be sure."

It was one of Bartz' rare moments of seriousness, and Cloud was thinking about it carefully. "You cannot be seen by the people of this world, right? Besides the boys and me?"

Bartz and Terra both nodded. "Wanna see a demonstration?" Bartz was already standing up and stretching.

"Can I say no?"

"Of course not."

"As long as it's not illegal..."

"As long as what's not illegal?"

A dramatic pause.

"Cait Sith!" Cloud almost shouted at the robot cat that had suddenly appeared, but curbed his volume just in time. "Why didn't you knock?"

The cat on the moogle looked rather miffed at that. "I did, you know, plenty of times! But you guys were just enjoying yourselves too much to hear me, I suppose! You know I cannot eat physical food and did that to mock me! I've been stabbed to the gears of my heart!" It stuck a dramatic pose for a few tensed seconds. Then it relaxed and slammed its gloved paws onto the moogle's head. "So what's going on? What's this I hear about... illegality? Don't worry, I won't spill to Reeve! You can trust me..."

Cait Sith had been looking at the table where the five of them had been sitting all the time, and had not made a single comment about the two newcomers, so Cloud was rather inclined to believe Bartz' claim at the moment. "It's nothing, don't worry about it," he reassured the cat. "How was your romp?" he asked, hoping it would get the hint to change the subject.

Thankfully, the cat was always up for describing its day. With great gusto, it launched into a narrative that began from it prowling near the campers near the beach and ended with it joining them for campfire games. All said while blatantly ignoring the two silent other-worldly visitors.

Cloud still wasn't entirely sure, even after Cait Sith had finished its story and was now waiting for a reaction from them. The cat could be really sneaky if it wanted to, and its deviousness multiplied when Reeve was in charge - something nobody could tell unless Reeve wanted you to know. So when hushed silence continued after Cait Sith's rambling story, the robot cat's ears began twitching.

"What, no congratulations, well done, anything?" it couldn't help but ask.

It was a good thing that Riku was a master of ceremonies. "We're just busy trying to figure out how much of that was truth," he reassured the cat smoothly. "I really doubt that part about the tomato sauce."

"Preposterous!" Cait Sith leapt onto the table and stalked towards Riku. "I'll even show you the stains, look!"

To Cloud and Sora's horror (Riku was far too good at schooling his features to make amateur mistakes like that), Bartz stood up very quietly from his chair and grabbed the robot cat, lifting it up by its cape. Even Terra was shooting him alarmed looks, but the curious adventurer was far too engrossed in his personal analysis to notice.

"Wha..." Cait Sith spun around. Sora quickly stood up as well, nudging Bartz aside and taking over the grabbing of the cape. There was a loud crash, which Cait Sith thankfully ignored. "Sora! What is the meaning of this?"

"Err..." Sora's eyes darted around for help. Terra, who was on the other side of the table, quickly and gently tipped her cup of coffee so that it spilled all over the area below the suspended Cait Sith. She nodded seriously at Sora, who said, "...you almost stepped into the coffee spill...?"

"I..." Cait Sith was about to protest until he looked down. "...did. Well well, my my... I could have sworn the path was clear just now..." Shaking itself free, it landed on a clean area on the tablecloth. "Anyway! The tomato sauce!"

Cloud rose to his feet in dramatic fashion. "You can show him in the caravan," he gave Cait Sith a warning glare. "I have _work_ to do and I don't want to hear a peep from any one of you lot until my work is done. Dismissed! And clean up the table while you're at it!"

Having said his piece, Cloud sauntered away from the table, shooting Bartz and Terra subtle 'follow-me-or-else' glances as he did. Sora was already wiping the coffee spill, and Riku had cajoled Cait Sith into launching into yet another grandiose speech, albeit at a much lower volume, so the cat wouldn't be bothering Cloud for a while.

The first thing Cloud did upon entering his basement office was to look at his table of undone paperwork and sigh.

"So I'm assuming we've been called here for a reason," began Bartz.

"Could I trouble you not to try something like that again on the people who come to this villa from now on?" Cloud bluntly proposed.

"Try what?" Bartz blinked innocently, having found a stool and sat down on it. "Oh, you mean the cat? Sorry about that, adventurer's instinct and all... Won't happen again. Promise!" He grinned reassuringly.

Cloud knew better than to believe Bartz' grins and reassurances, though. Even if he truly meant it, he would find a way to somehow accidentally do something completely counterproductive anyway. "This is extremely important. We can't risk exposing Sora and Riku to the people here until the time calls for it. You're invisible and nobody can touch you, as you have proven quite clearly with those actions just now, but they're not quite as fortunate. I hope you at least understand that."

Silence stretched as Bartz appeared to contemplate Cloud's words. "That much I can do, I'm sure," the glint in his eyes hardened slightly as he said that.

"As do I," Terra added. "Was that a comrade of yours here, Cloud?"

"Its name is Cait Sith," Cloud said. "There are many details that I can't get into right now due to time constraints, but you could say he's like the automated robot of the most powerful person in authority in this world at the moment."

"Wouldn't someone like that know about the sky holes, though?" asked Terra.

"Sure he does, but he's not entirely sure what they are yet, since the first one only appeared some days ago. And since I had reason to believe the holes could be Sora and Riku's ticket back to their world, I haven't told him anything yet. But now that you guys have shown up, I'm not so sure about keeping him in the dark anymore. He has the right to know about the invisible monsters, at the very least."

Bartz folded his arms across his chest and leaned back with a comical frown on his face. He was trying to compose his thoughts, Cloud could tell, but Terra spoke up for him instead, saying, "You have the prerogative to tell anyone you deem fit about this, as long as it doesn't cause mass hysteria. That said, I'm not sure if our tale is easy to believe to someone who hasn't been through it."

Cloud almost laughed out loud at that. "That's another reason why I haven't told anyone anything yet."

"So how are we going to start looking for the monsters?" Bartz suddenly asked. "You know, the ones that might have fallen into this world, the reason why we might have been sent here, besides the portal being a portal doing what a portal would do thing?"

"I've already explained it before and to be honest, I really don't think there are any invisible monsters around," Cloud shook his head. "Why don't you return and tell the others about what you know instead?" he continued. "Don't worry about the monsters, if there's even any. I'll take care of them." He paused. "Sora and Riku will probably be helping too," he added as an afterthought.

Bartz and Terra turned to look at each other. "Even if we wanted to return, we're not sure how we could," Terra pointed out.

For some reason, Cloud lifted his head up to look at the inky darkness that was his basement ceiling. "I think you've proven your point," he said, unsure of why he was saying it, except that it seemed like just the thing to do. "You can send them back now."

The darkness shimmered a little.

Then it reached out and swallowed Terra and Bartz from view. When it receded, the two visitors were no longer present.

Although decidedly thrown off by the sudden twist of affairs, Cloud nevertheless had enough presence of mind to mutter an incredulous, "Thanks...?" He stared at the spot where the duo had been standing, wondering what had just happened and had the portal just responded to his request? After a while, he shrugged and returned his attention to the mess that was his work desk.

The worlds could wait. Strife Delivery Service had parcels to process.

Some time later (Cloud had no idea how long had passed, except that he had finally sorted out most of the paperwork on his desk), Riku appeared in the basement and reported, "Cait Sith's gone back to disturbing the campers at the beach. The coast in the villa is clear."

The boy's statement didn't exactly register in Cloud's mind as anything noteworthy until a few seconds later, when he saw that Riku was looking all around the basement as if in search for something.

Or someone.

"They've gone back," Cloud dutifully informed. He turned around slowly from his desk. Riku blinked and stopped glancing around, looking instead at his employer.

"How...?" The boy was understandably mystified.

In response, Cloud pointed upwards. Riku looked up. The darkness shimmered a little. "Swallowed them up as soon as I made the suggestion," Cloud clarified, when the frown on Riku's face started growing deeper. The boy thought too much for his own good sometimes.

"Which means there aren't really any invisible monsters in this world then?" asked Riku. Cloud simply nodded, and the boy went into thinking about something again.

It was at this point of time that Sora appeared as well, bounding down the basement stairs by threes. He glanced around briefly and asked, "Where's Bartz and Terra?"

Cloud explained what had happened again.

"Wow!" Sora was genuinely impressed. "The portal can take orders? That's so cool! Hey, can you bring Bartz and Terra back again?" he asked the darkness, before Cloud could stop him.

Nothing happened.

"Hm?" Sora inclined his head slightly to the left. "It's not working!" he complained to Cloud.

"Well, it _has_ already proven its point," Cloud mused. "Wouldn't be achieving much by doing it again."

"What point?" Sora inclined his head in the other direction.

"The point," Riku spoke up, "is that this 'door' we've opened up," he pointed at the darkness above them, "is connected to a sky hole in another world. Which means we can use it to cross over to where Bartz and Terra are whenever necessary. Or so I think."

As soon as Riku had finished saying his piece, the darkness flashed a little. The trio looked up at it, visibly surprised, but the darkness remained stoically dark.

"Why do I have a very bad feeling about that flash?" mumbled Cloud under his breath, which the two boys picked up anyway.

"As long as it doesn't drop a monster on us, I'm happy," Sora shrugged.

"Why do you even think it's going to drop something on us, anyway?"

"Hmm... experience?" Sora grinned.

"Well then, please don't drop anything until tomorrow morning, at least," Cloud said to the darkness. "I think I just might accidentally cleave the next thing that comes in through the portal into half, whatever it may be."

"So we're leaving the portal up then?" Sora asked.

"I don't think we have a choice," Riku answered. "If it connects us to another world that has more experience with these strange sightings in the sky, we'll need them to share more information with us sooner or later anyway."

"Would be tiring for you guys to keep opening portals in my basement ceiling when we need to talk to someone, anyway," Cloud pointed out. "So we're now connected to Terra's world, it seems. Great. I'll get back to you about what we should do next after I sleep on it for a bit," he reassured the boys. "Plus, we have some urgent deliveries to run tomorrow."

"Oh, right," Sora nodded sagely. "You can trust us with your mail. We'll get it done even if invisible otherworldly monsters may have punctured holes in the sky. What good is a planet if you can't get your mail on time? Deliveryman first, saviour of the planet second," he lowered his voice and imitate Cloud's sword pose. Beside him, Riku was trying to stifle his laughter.

"Very funny," Cloud hit Sora lightly on the head with a convenient stack of paper. He paused and thought about it. "But we can consider using that last line as our new tagline, maybe."

Sora burst out laughing, and had to be dragged out of the basement by a smiling Riku.

**11 August 2013**


	8. Chapter 8

When Cloud opened the door of his room to find the Warrior of Light standing in his dingy basement office the next day, the first thing he did was to close the door back.

He took a few deep breaths, then opened the door again.

The illustrious leader of harmony was still there. He was examining the interior of the basement in his usual regal, deadpan manner. His armour gleamed brightly even in the shadow of the spinning vortex. Cloud stepped out of the refuge of his room and stood around shifting his weight awkwardly, waiting for the Warrior to finish his inspection of the premises. He almost felt sorry that the glowing man had to befoul his pristine boots on his unpaved basement floor. The feelings this man could inspire in a person!

Soon, the Warrior was done scanning the territory. He looked straight at Cloud and asked, "Where is the monster?"

It took Cloud a few seconds to decipher that question. Then everything Bartz and Terra had told him about the multiple universe monster hunting thing came back. He checked his phone quickly, and saw nothing of note from either Reeve or Nanaki. "I don't think there are any," he finally replied.

"What do you mean?" the Warrior was perplexed, but not stumped. "Have I been sent here for another purpose, then?"

Cloud wondered how much he already knew. "Did you meet up with Bartz or Terra before appearing here?"

"I was pulled here directly from Baron Castle."

So no, then. Baron Castle was in Cecil's world, whereas Bartz and Terra had come from Terra's world. "Well," Cloud began to usher the Warrior towards the staircase leading to the floor above, where the kitchen and thus breakfast awaited. "In that case, you might want to sit down while we go through this all over again..."

Amazingly, it didn't take him (and the boys, who joined in halfway) the whole day to explain the entire thing all over again, owing to the fact that the Warrior of Light was an excellent listener who asked no questions about what he heard as long as it was from a source he trusted. Then again, it could also be that Cloud and the boys were getting really good at this explaining thing. So much practice, after all.

"All right," the Warrior of Light affirmed, after the beans had been spilt. "Since the three of you can see the monsters and are currently permanently anchored to this world, we shall not be allocating any other troops here. Once someone from another world shows up, send them right back, and take care of the monsters yourselves." He stood. "I must return at once to continue my mission." And off he went back down to the basement.

The three of them watched him until he disappeared around the bend. Then they turned to look at each other.

Cloud eventually shrugged and said, "Pack up you lot, we've got deliveries to run."

A lot of rushing later, Strife Delivery Service was on the road again.

Along the way, when they were resting below a crag near the Goldsaucer desert, Sora asked, "So who was he, anyway?"

Cloud looked at Sora for a long time, not because he didn't understand the question, but because he didn't know what to say or where to even start. "He was kind of like our leader, you could say."

"Our?" asked Riku this time.

"Yes, a band of us from different worlds came together to fight in a war against chaos and discord," he shrugged. "Bartz and Terra were also a part of that team."

The boys were looking at him with rather large eyes now. "You came together from different worlds? How did you do that without a keyblade?" Sora asked.

"Someone summoned us into this... special dimension, if I remember correctly," Cloud explained.

"Did he have a keyblade?"

"Actually, about that..." Cloud wasn't aware of the full details behind his adventure with the others, except that they went on one. The bouts of mako poisoning and geostigma had reached some part of him not even the enhancements could touch - his ability to retain certain events in his mind unless someone or something triggered it. "Some parts of the whole thing is lost to me. You might want to ask the next person who shows up. Anyway, he's not an enemy, if that's what you're concerned about."

The boys were silent for a while. Then Riku spoke up, saying, "Someone who can summon people from other worlds into another dimension has a lot of power that could result in dire consequences if misused. Maybe he's the one behind the portals this time?"

Cloud asked his gut if it agreed with that sentence, and the gut made a small noise of protest. "I don't think they have anything to do with it," he said. "Not that I even remember who summoned us, but something inside says no. More importantly... This shows that there's more to the portal you boys opened up than we initially thought."

"What?" It was Sora.

"It's not just a door that connects us to another world," Cloud explained.

"But people are coming through it," Sora replied. "People you know, to boot."

"I think," Riku interrupted, "what Cloud means that it doesn't just connect to another _single world_. It connects to _multiple worlds_." He looked at Cloud in the eye at that. "Am I right?"

Cloud nodded, relaxing against the sandy wall he was standing in front of. "Bartz and Terra came from Terra's world. The Warrior of Light came from Cecil's world. Yet all of them went through the equivalent portal on their side and landed up in this world. All their skyholes are somehow connected to the portal you opened up in my basement, possibly because of some keyblade logic. And you know what this further means?"

This time, even Riku was stumped. Both of them shook their heads rather gingerly.

"It means there's a possibility the portal here is connected to every single skyhole in all the other worlds that are involved," Cloud declared. "So we won't know where we might end up if we used the portal ourselves!"

A short silence followed that announcement.

"Wouldn't Bartz just absolutely love that?" Sora wondered out loud. "I wonder if he landed up in another world when he was sent back?"

"I have no idea," Cloud mumbled just loudly enough that they could hear him. "I bet this is what that flash yesterday was all about, anyway."

"Does that mean the portal's not safe?" asked Riku, ever the worrywart. "Should we close it?"

Cloud considered that suggestion. He had a feeling it would be better for his peace of mind if they really did close it, but that would cut them off from the others again, and wouldn't lend to the complete resolution of this issue anyway. So he shook his head, saying, "Leave it. They're capable of taking care of themselves whichever world they land in."

"They've been doing it for a while, haven't they?" Sora highlighted. "I'm sure they'll be fine!"

Riku looked like he wanted to say something else, but eventually relented. "Fine," he said. "But I'm closing it the moment it shows any signs of endangering anyone."

A few other exchanges later, they hopped back to their vehicles and were on the way again.

The day was uneventful in terms of new skyholes or invisible monster discoveries, so the team made it back to home base sooner than expected. This was great, for it gave Cloud some free time to finally sit down and think about what their next step would be.

Or, it would have, had there not been a couple of familiar faces in the basement (again).

Cloud almost dropped the sword in his hand (he was going to put it away in his room) when he walked down the staircase to the basement and heard his name being yelled.

"Cloooooud!" Tidus bounced towards him. "Bartz was right! You're here!"

"Hi, Cloud," Firion waved from somewhere behind Tidus. "Bartz and Terra told us what happened. Glad to see you around."

"Sit down, you two," Cloud sighed, and pointed the two of them toward a couple of stools. "When did you get here?"

"Just a while ago," Firion answered, as he obediently sat. "We were wondering if this was the cave Bartz was talking about when you showed up."

"It's not a cave," Cloud retorted. He hung his sword up on a nearby wall and shouted up the stairs, "Sora, Riku, get down here!"

"Oh! Your two apprentices!" Tidus said, with an excited glint in his eyes.

"_What_ exactly has Bartz been telling you?" Cloud could not help but ask. "And no, they're not my apprentices."

Heavy stomping could be heard by this point of time - the kind that usually preceded the sudden appearance of Sora. True to form, Sora leapt into the basement like a gymnast. "At your service!" he saluted Cloud.

Riku walked down the stairs like a normal person. The first thing he noticed was the newcomers. And then he started staring at them with unconcealed surprise. "Sora!" he said, urgently. By this time, Sora was gaping at the two newcomers as well.

"Yes, they're also from other worlds, no need to be so surprised," Cloud confirmed, when the boys started whispering to each other about something. "They know the brief story from Bartz and Terra," Cloud nodded at the duo. "Probably embellished, but that'll have to do."

"Yes, we know that there aren't any invisible monsters here," Firion agreed. "And even if there are, you're probably taking care of them. Not sure why we're here in that case, then."

Cloud shrugged. He would like that know that very much as well.

"Are you related to someone called Tidus?" Sora suddenly asked none other than Tidus himself.

Tidus actually paused for a few seconds to process that question. "I _am_ Tidus," he finally replied cheerily. "Who's asking?"

"I told you it would be like Cloud's situation," Riku said to Sora from where he stood behind him. "Memory loss, etcetera etcetera..."

"But Tidus wasn't so... tall... when we last saw him!" protested Sora. "Cloud was exactly the same! And, and... Tidus grew up on Destiny Islands... didn't he?"

"What's going on?" Tidus asked Cloud in a low voice.

"Well," Cloud thought about how he should explain the whole thing about the boys to Tidus. "It's complicated," he said, "but these boys, you know they're from another world, right?" Tidus nodded, and Firion did as well, behind him, to indicate that he too was paying attention. "The thing is, some of us seem to play certain roles in their world as well - roles quite different from the ones we're currently playing, wherever we are. They're probably surprised because you were most likely in their world in some form or another."

Firion and Tidus glanced at each other in mutual confusion. "Can't say I understand it completely, but I think I get your drift," Tidus nodded to Cloud.

"Thank you," Cloud sighed in relief. He had been narrating too many stories recently and wasn't quite ready to do one more. Especially since he wasn't quite getting the entire picture himself. Turning to the boys, who seemed to have sorted out their issues by now, he asked, "You boys okay there?"

They nodded, and Riku spoke up, saying, "Things do happen to our bodies when we traverse worlds, even as keyblade wielders, so I'm really not too surprised at seeing Tidus here looking slightly different from we remembered him," he nodded at Tidus to indicate that he meant no offence by those words. Tidus nodded back with a grin.

"Well then, let's try this again," Cloud held his hands up. "This is Riku," Cloud gestured towards Riku. "And that's Sora."

"Yeah, we sorta guessed," Tidus grinned. "I'm Tidus, as you already seem to know, and he's Firion!

"Since you just came through the portal, I have a question for you," Riku interjected. "What exactly happens when you walk through these skyholes or portals to reach another world?"

Tidus thought about it for a bit, then turned to look at Firion. "I don't remember walking or anything," he said. "We're kinda just thrown into the next world after a bit of spinning around."

"What makes you think people actually walk through these things?" Firion asked, sincerely interested.

Riku tried to say something, but wasn't sure how to phrase it. "It's how it works with the Doors to Darkness," he eventually said, and didn't elaborate.

"Bartz probably mentioned something about that when we were talking to him," said Firion. "What bearing does it have on our situation?"

"Well..." Sora replied this time. "If there are no Doors to Darkness involved, I guess you can rule out a few possible candidates who could be causing this thing?"

"Right! We're supposed to be figuring out the cause of this affair so that we can put a stop to it!" Tidus grinned.

"What's the situation on your side so far?" Cloud asked.

"Our side?" Firion tilted his head. "You mean with the rest of us?"

"Aren't you guys sort of connected to each other with the skyholes and such?"

"Randomly," Firion sighed. "We exchange as much information as we can when we bump into each other - quite often since we do the monster hunting thing - but it's not really enough to help us formulate a plan that can bring us closer to the cause."

"Has anybody tried to organize a meet up or something, though?" Cloud probed.

"I think we've probably tried almost every trick in the book," Tidus said, somewhat sadly. "The skyholes only allow us to go through if there's a monster in our world on the other side. Once that's defeated, we can go through the skyholes back to our own world again, and that's that."

"I know what you're thinking," Firion said before Cloud could open his mouth. "Why not stay in that world until all the others eventually land there, right? Unfortunately, the monsters don't really have any concept of time and convenience, so if we stayed and a monster from our world went on a rampage in another world..." He sighed again. "It's not as easy as it sounds."

"Squall mentioned he and Zidane can practically cross over to each other's world whenever they wanted, when I last saw him," Cloud offered. "What's with that, then?"

"Ah, that's old information," said Firion. "That's what we _thought_ at first, but it was actually just that the flow of monsters between their worlds was going strong at that point of time. Seems like they dried up recently and both of them are back in their worlds without any way to cross over again."

"What a fat lot of help these portals are proving to be," Cloud grumbled. "Still no clue who could be behind this at all?"

"Hmm..." Tidus was leaning back with a contemplative frown on his face. "Squall thinks since all of us are involved, it has to has something to do with the war, or at least the dimension the war took place in. So he's asking us to keep a lookout for any signs of what may be going on in the portals itself when we go through them, since we're not getting anywhere _outside_ the portals..."

"But you said you didn't have to walk through the portal," Cloud pointed out.

"I don't think he wants us to explore the portals, just to keep an eye out for anything that might be suspicious," Firion was saying. As a musing silence stretched over the company, Firion turned to look at the two boys who had been standing near the foot of the staircase. "By the way... may I see that keyblade weapon of yours for a bit...?"

"You already have enough, Firion," Tidus joked as he elbowed his friend in his ribs. "No need to snatch any more from people you've just met."

"Shut up, it's just for reference," Firion stammered out in a fluster.

"I don't mind," Sora had already summoned his keyblade. "I don't think you can hold it, though," he held it out to Firion, who took it carefully. The same thing thing that had happened with Cloud happened again. With a bright flash of light, the keyblade transferred itself back to Sora's hand.

"Whoa, that's actually something!" Tidus jumped onto his feet and exclaimed. "Tough, pal!" he grinned at Firion as he sat back down again.

"I _wasn't_ going to steal it or anything!" Firion huffed, then turned back to the keyblade in Sora's hand. "So... this is the thing that opens and shuts portals?"

"Ah..." Sora hesitated for a split second. "I guess you could say that?"

"I wonder how this is going to fit into the grand scheme of things," mused Firion.

"That's what we're all trying to find out," said Cloud. "Actually, the Warrior of Light was in the house this morning too, before you guys. I think the more pressing question at the moment should be, why are all of you showing up when there are no monsters to hunt here?"

"The Warrior of Light?" Tidus gasped. "I haven't seen him for weeks! So the leader's been busy, huh?"

Firion answered Cloud's question. "I really don't know, since it's so hard to get information from everyone when we need it, but when we see Squall we'll ask him about it. If the others haven't already."

"Anyway," Cloud said, "the Warrior instructed me to send everyone who appears here back to where they're from and leave the monsters here to us, since we're apparently anchored to this world."

"Are you?" asked Tidus.

Cloud looked at Sora, who shrugged, then Riku, who had a thinking look on his face. "I don't think we are, actually," Riku finally said. "It's just that we've never tried taking the portals ourselves yet. I guess we didn't make that clear enough to the Warrior."

"I totally understand," Tidus nodded with a chuckle. "Man has the ability to scare words out of your mind, I swear."

"Shouldn't at least one of us try to go into the portal to see what happens?" Sora asked.

"We need both keyblades to open and close this particular kind of portal, remember?" Riku reminded him.

"Who's going to help me with the deliveries if you both go away?" Cloud demanded, half-heartedly.

"Well if we're just going to go there and come back..." Sora trailed off.

"How do we know if it's both ways?" Riku pointed out. "We haven't seen any of our visitors return yet."

Sora threw his hands up in the air. "Both of you are no fun!"

Cloud sighed. "Where did you meet Bartz or Terra?" he asked Firion and Tidus.

"They came out of a small portal thingy together, right in front of us," Tidus was saying. "We were in the Onion Knight's world, just finished dealing with a couple of monsters."

"So you stepped through that portal and came here then?"

"What? No," Tidus shook his head. "The portal vanished after they were sorta thrown out. Which was strange, because the portals have never vanished before." He paused. "Oh wait, we're calling them portals now?"

"I think we should just stick to skyhole until Squall says otherwise," Firion advised.

"So how _did_ you guys come here then, if it wasn't through that portal?" Cloud queried.

"After we spoke with them and parted ways, we were passing by this particular cave," Firion gestured. "There was a swirling dark spot there, right at the entrance, so we went closer to investigate. Next thing we knew, we were standing in your cave."

"It's a basement, not a cave!" Cloud railed, as calmly as he could. "So you walked into that dark spot?"

"I don't quite remember doing something like that," Firion looked at Tidus, who shook his head as well.

"And it wasn't in the sky either, like every other skyhole that had appeared so far," Tidus said as he pointed upwards.

"So it's an auto-portal that sucks people in!" Sora exclaimed, all of a sudden.

"You know what, I think that might make some sense!" Tidus nodded, after a while.

"What's an auto-portal?" Firion didn't get it.

"Like, you know," Sora explained, "it opens up automatically when someone approaches and closes when people are far away from it."

_It _does _make sense_, thought Cloud, as possibilities flooded his mind. "While it seems plausible, we'll never know for sure unless we can somehow test that theory out. Unfortunately, there are no skyholes in this world I know of that can bring you back. Or portals, or whatever."

Firion and Tidus turned to look at each other. "How about that one up there?" Firion asked, glancing at the darkness above them.

"That one's special," Cloud shrugged. "It doesn't really behave like a skyhole or a portal. We're not quite sure what its purpose is yet, but since it connects us to the other worlds somehow, we're leaving it up for now."

Tidus stood and started warming up. "Dude, you have no idea how many skyholes we've gone through until now, by request of strategy master Squall. Testing theories is as much a part of our quest as hunting for monsters is! Piece of cake! Let me see where it goes, and if you don't see me back soon, I'll tell you when we next meet again!" With a two finger salute, he leapt up into the portal and disappeared completely, giving no one any time to protest.

A few seconds passed, and the departed Tidus remained a no-show.

"So much for that, then," Cloud grumbled. When he saw Sora looking slightly dejected, he corrected himself. "Very astute observation, though."

"I think," Riku spoke out, "that it could just be that they haven't found the place with the auto-portal."

Cloud raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"It's just a thought," the boy clarified, "but what if there's one so-called auto-portal in every world? In a fixed place? It seems like they're travelling all over the place at the moment, and may not be returning to the same place they came from. If the auto-portal leading here is in a specific place which they don't know of, it's not surprising that none of them have figured out how to return here yet."

"Yes," Firion was saying, brows knitted and arms crossed, "now that you mention it, Bartz and Terra weren't in the Onion Knight's world before we met them. They said they had come from here, and before that they were in Terra's world. That may be a reasonable explanation, assuming the auto-portal thing is true," he nodded at Riku in acknowledgement.

"I guess the only way to know for sure is if and when Tidus or any of the others return," Cloud put a hand on his forehead, rubbing it. How did things just keep on getting more and more complicated? Just a few days ago he was only a jaded deliveryman looking for helpers.

"Don't fret, friend," Firion smiled a little. "We'll get to the bottom of this together, just like the last time."

"Urgh," Cloud had to say. "I can only hope it doesn't turn out to be as traumatising as it was."

"So, um... Firion?" Sora was asking. "What're you going to do now?"

"Hmm..." the youth thought - actually thought about it for a moment. "As much as I would like to take a break for a day or two, I really can't, especially since I don't know if any monsters from my world are causing harm to someone else in another world at the moment, so... I'll be making a move as well," he smiled, somewhat wistfully. "That's what the leader ordered anyway, right? If I somehow manage to find my way back, I'll be sure to let you know if the theory's correct."

"And tell the others this is a basement, not a cave, while you're at it," Cloud grumbled unhappily under his breath. Firion chuckled at that.

"I'll be sure to do that," Firion winked, "see you around, Cloud, Sora, and Riku!" he bade them farewell quickly, before jumping into the portal in the ceiling and disappearing as Tidus had.

"To be honest," Sora said as he put his hands on his waist, glancing around, "this place _does_ look like a cave."

"Oh, get lost, you two," Cloud groaned.

The boys laughed their way out of the cave-like basement.

**30 August 2013**

Special thanks to **Sunny Lighter** who informed me of my slip-up with Tidus and the boys! I've rewritten that part now. This is actually the first time I'm writing a story with so many characters, so please do bear with me if there's anything jarring!  
m(_ _)m Thanks for reading!


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